Grow, harvest, brew
Enjoy a cup of piping hot tea from your very own garden

B4

REBELS
BLANK
RAIDERS
SPORTS — PAGE B5

Red Deer Advocate
THURSDAY, JAN. 23, 2014

www.reddeeradvocate.com

Your trusted local news authority
IMPASSIBLE SIDEWALK

Parkvale
kitchen
gutted
by blaze
BY MURRAY CRAWFORD
ADVOCATE STAFF

Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff

Forced off the sidewalk because packed ice and snow made it impassible, Ernest Duda pushes a
shopping cart piled high with bottles and cans along 32nd Street. Duda was making the trek to a
bottle depot Wednesday.

City payroll hits 1,400

Please see FIRE on Page A2

COUNCIL APPROVED 21
NEW FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT
POSITIONS IN OPERATING
BUDGET

Stolen laptop
had health info of
620,000 patients

BY CRYSTAL RHYNO
ADVOCATE STAFF
Red Deer city council approved 21 new full-time
equivalent positions to work in Transit, RCMP, Public Works and Parks with the passing of the 2014 municipal operating budget last week.
This brings the tally to about 1,351 staffers in 2014,
compared to 1,330 in 2013.
Factoring in the extra staff for ice and snow control, the total may increase by another five to 10 employees.
The actual number on the city’s payroll is 1,400.
That includes staff who may work a few hours of
part-time or half-time.
City manager Craig Curtis said the number of staff
employed at the city is in line with comparable-sized
cities that are growing. But he said the number of
staff in any municipality depends on the services
provided in the community and the projects that are
contracted out.
The City of Lethbridge, for example, has 1,376 fulltime equivalent employees.
“We probably have a larger park system than
more comparable cities,” said Curtis. “That makes
Community Services a pretty large area but the community believes that is one of our major assets.”
Curtis said the hiring of contractors relates to
how the city operates. The city hires 95 per cent of
its contractors for construction projects and roads.
Curtis said Red Deer has one of the fewest number
of engineers on staff compared to similar-sized municipalities.
The city has engineers in four departments, as
well as four managers who are engineers. The Engineering Department has 10 engineers dealing with
things like traffic, design and development. The
other departments with engineers are Public Works

In a flash, a pot fire on the stove spread and set a
Parkvale kitchen ablaze Wednesday afternoon.
Kelly Chatwood was in her Red Deer home at the
time, as well two of her children, age two and four,
and said she had left the pot alone for a short period
of time.
“It went up in seconds,” she said.
Red Deer Emergency Services responded to the
fire at 4601-46th Ave. at around 2:30 p.m. Platoon
Chief Terry Brew said they had 17 firemedics on
scene battling the blaze, which they had under control within 20 minutes.
“She had something on the stove cooking, it caught
on fire and spread to the curtains and it turned into
a full kitchen fire,” said Brew.
“No one was injured, everyone was outside when
we arrived. We had it knocked down within five minutes of our arrival.”

BY THE CANADIAN PRESS

(two), Environmental Services (four) and Electric
Light and Power (six).
“(Consultants) are subject matter experts that actually save us money,” said Curtis.
The consultants contracted to the city currently
are working on large projects such as road repair
and design, the North Highway Connector ring road,
the expansion of the wastewater treatment plant and
the water treatment plant.

EDMONTON — Alberta Health Minister Fred
Horne said Wednesday he is “outraged” a laptop
containing key information on 620,000 patients was
stolen four months ago but only now brought to his
department’s attention.
The information includes unencrypted names,
birthdates, health card numbers, billing codes, billing amounts and diagnostic codes for patients who
were seen at Medicentre clinics around the province
from May 2, 2011, to Sept. 19, 2013.
Horne said the laptop was stolen Sept. 26 and reported by Medicentre days later, on Oct. 1, to Alberta
Privacy Commissioner Jill Clayton and the Edmonton police.
Horne, however, said he and his department were
not told until Tuesday, when he received a letter
from the vice president of Medicentres.
“On behalf of the citizens of this province I’m
quite frankly outraged that this would not have been
reported to myself or my department sooner,” Horne
told a news conference at the legislature.
Horne said he has asked Clayton to investigate the
matter under the Health Information Act to determine what happened and whether any breaches of
privacy legislation have occurred.
“I will pursue this matter to the full extent of the
law,” he said.

Please see STAFF on Page A2

Please see PRIVACY on Page A2

Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff

After connecting traffic detection cameras to a light
standard, City of Red Deer power lineman Jason
Richards begins to return the wires back into the
pole on Wednesday.

U.S. committee calls
for end to COOL
The Canadian government has won a
powerful ally in its fight against punishing
U.S. meat-import regulations.

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Police add one more person to list of
suspects in Calgary swarming death
CALGARY — Police now have five young men in
custody in last fall’s swarming death of an 18-yearold man in Calgary.
Lukas Strasser-Hird was fatally injured in a fight
outside a downtown bar last November.
He was found beaten and stabbed in an alleyway.
The latest suspect — 19-year-old Jordan Lee Liao
of Calgary — was arrested Tuesday.
He is charged with second-degree murder.
Nathan Paul Gervais, who is 18 and also from
Calgary, has already been charged with first-degree
murder.
Three other men face second-degree murder
charges.
The suspects are Assmar Ryiad Shlah, 20; Franz
Emir Cabrera, 19; and Joch Pouk, 20 — all from Calgary.

Trudeau says experiences of legalized
pot in U.S. states important to watch
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff

Town of Sylvan Lake employee Shane McKenzie waters in the surface of the lake Wednesday. The
rink, which is behind schedule because the town resources have been tied up clearing snow from
streets is now coming together. The rink surface at about 175 metres long by 45 metres wide was
cleared of snow this week and should be ready for skaters soon.

Pipeline spills produced water
northwest of Edmonton
WHITECOURT — Alberta Environment says a
pipeline has leaked northwest of Edmonton.
The government department says it was notified
of the leak on Tuesday morning.
The pipeline is owned by Apache Canada and
the leak happened about 20 kilometres northwest of
Whitecourt.

STORIES FROM PAGE A1

FIRE: Cost of damage
unknown
He said the kitchen was totally gutted and that
was where the fire was confined to. There was smoke
damage to the rest of the unit. He was unable to estimate the cost of the damage.
The investigation into the fire began about an
hour after it started and is ongoing.
“We’ve lost everything,” said Chatwood.
After seeing the fire she got her children out as
fast as she could. She was joined by family after the
fire.
She said she was going to be taken back into the
home by fire crews to see what could be salvaged,
but she seemed pessimistic about what was left.
The building is a duplex owned by the Red Deer
Housing Authority. The fire happened in the south
unit’s kitchen. Sadika Mujic and her family live in
the north unit and were not home at the time of the
fire. Mujic said she was out picking up her daughter
when the fire happened. She and her family inspected their unit with firefighters to investigate and
assess the damage.
The Red Deer Housing Authority was unable to
comment because Emergency Services hadn’t completed their investigation yet.
mcrawford@reddeeradvocate.com

PRIVACY: Horne out
of the loop
Medicentres operate a chain of primary care clinics.
Dr. Arif Bhimji, the chief medical officer for Medicentres, apologized for the information leak.
“Medicentres and myself are truly sorry for what

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Alberta Environment says about 1.6 million litres
of produced water leaked from the pipeline across a
leased road and affected a small, unnamed tributary.
The government says Apache is working to contain the leak, clean up the area and minimize impact
to the environment.
Alberta Environment also says continuous airmonitoring has detected no levels of hydrogen sulphide at the spill site, or near cleanup operations.
The Alberta Energy Regulator is investigating.

has occurred,” said Bhimji.
Bhimji said they took what they felt were correct
steps, by working with the government through the
privacy office and reporting the theft to police.
But he said in hindsight it would have been better
to keep Horne in the loop.
“I’ve certainly learned that perhaps I should have
included the minister at a much earlier stage,” said
Bhimji.
“It certainly was not our intention to cause the anguish that has been reported.”
Bhimji said they upgraded privacy safeguards.
Among other changes, all patient information is
now encrypted, it is no longer put on laptops unless
absolutely necessary, and fewer employees and consultants have access to patient data, he said.
He said Horne was notified of the breach Wednesday as part of the roll out of Medicentre’s public information campaign, which includes newspaper ads
Thursday and a call centre to handle questions from
patients.
“They (Horne’s office) chose to make the announcement a day earlier than we had planned,”
said Bhimji.
Bhimji said the laptop has not been found but
says no one has since used one of the stolen names to
try to fraudulently get care at a Medicentre.
He said the stolen diagnostic codes would reveal
a patient’s general ailment, but not details.
Clayton was unavailable for comment Wednesday.
Brian Hamilton, Clayton’s director of compliance
and special investigations, said they have been working with Medicentres since the breach.
When asked why the privacy commissioner did
not inform Horne’s office last fall, Hamilton said
Clayton is duty bound and compelled by legislation
to restrict the information to those directly involved.
“It wouldn’t be our practice to notify the minister
unless the breach involved one of the ministry’s information systems,” said Hamilton.
Hamilton said they can urge a company to report
a privacy breach to a government department, but
can’t order it to do so.
He said Clayton would make a decision as early as
Thursday on whether to launch an investigation.
Wildrose party critic Kerry Towle said the issue
raises larger concerns about Albertans’ privacy.

“That probably makes up 80 to 90 per cent of our
contracting dollars,” said Curtis. “The other studies
you hear about, $5,000 here, $20,000 here, are largely
irrelevant in terms of the total consultant dollars
that we expend.”
He did not have available the total amount spent
on consultants.
During 2014 budget talks, Coun. Tanya Handley
raised concerns over the hiring of consultants and
the number of staff already on the payroll.
Staffing accounts for 40 per cent or $122 million
on a $305-million operational budget.
Curtis said this comes up often because there is a
misunderstanding about the work that consultants
do at the city. Curtis said Red Deer is no different
than any other municipality in any province.
“We are understaffed in some areas and use
consultants to perform that specialized task,” said
Curtis. “If you need somebody to do a transportation
study on flow of transportation on an arterial road
and the design on an intersection, you hire a specialized engineering firm that does that.”
As well, Curtis said Red Deer is a growing city
that may need more staff compared to similar-sized
municipalities that are not dealing with the challenges of growth.
“Growth is huge in this city,” said Curtis. “Somebody has to design that infrastructure and it certainly isn’t our internal staff.”
Recreation, Parks and Culture is the largest city
department with 263 staffers, followed by the RCMP
with 221 and Emergency Services with 192 employees. The city’s Communications Department has
seven full-time equivalents on the payroll.
crhyno@reddeeradvocate.com

“(Albertans) have a right to expect immediate
notification if their personal information has been
compromised in any way,” said Towle in a news release.

SALE NOW ON!

WEATHER
LOCAL TODAY

OKOTOKS — Federal Liberal Leader Justin
Trudeau thinks there are lessons to be learned from
the legalization of marijuana in some U.S. states.
Sales of marijuana to adults over 21 began Jan. 1
in Colorado as the state legalized pot for recreational purposes.
Washington’s stores are expected to open in late
spring.
Last summer, Trudeau admitted to smoking pot
after becoming an MP and has maintained that legalization in Canada is a good idea.
He said Canada would benefit from keeping a
close eye on the experiences in Colorado and Washington state.
He said there are all sorts of questions to be asked
about how it actually works in practice.
“It’s just how they balance the need to protect
people and control a substance and respect people’s
freedoms,” Trudeau told reporters after a 90 minute
meet-and-greet with 200 supporters in Okotoks, south
of Calgary.

U.S. committee calls for end to COOL
BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
WASHINGTON â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Signs of a thaw have emerged
in a developing trade battle between Canada and the
United States.
The Canadian government has won a powerful
friend in its fight against punishing U.S. meat-import
regulations that have evoked warnings of a broader
trade war between the countries.
An American congressional committee has requested a stop to labelling rules that have seriously
damaged Canadian meat exports and prompted the
federal government to threaten retaliation.
In a note attached to a major spending bill, the
House of Representativesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; appropriations committee
chairman referred to the Canadian threat and asked
the U.S. Department of Agriculture to back off.
Country-of-origin labelling (COOL) rules are
blamed for complicating the process of bringing in
meat from Canada, and for reducing such exports to
the U.S. by half since 2008.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;The (budget) agreement does not approve of USDAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s continued implementation, enforcement, and
the associated spending related to the mandatory
country of origin labeling regulation for certain meat
products during the pending World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute with Canada and Mexico,â&#x20AC;? said
the letter from chairman Hal Rogers of Kentucky.

The congressional committee canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t actually force
the executive agency to drop the rule â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but it does
have control over that agencyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s budget.
The Canadian government expressed optimism
Wednesday over the news.
A spokesman from Ottawa said the government
will continue fighting the regulation at the World
Trade Organization but, in the meantime, would be
pleased to see U.S. lawmakers drop the requirement
in their upcoming Farm Bill.
The issue has pitted U.S. farmers, and their allies
in Congress, against Canadian competitors and their
American allies, such as the meat-processing plants
they work with. It has also provoked a political backlash.
In year-end interviews, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz had said Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pledge to retaliate against
a wide range of U.S. products from orange juice to
bread if COOL wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t scrapped or amended was no
idle threat.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is not a game of chicken here. This is a game
of reality,â&#x20AC;? Ritz told The Canadian Press. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They are
hurting our industry to the tune of $1 billion per
year.â&#x20AC;?
The effect of the labelling policy, first implemented in 2008, has been to cut Canadian cattle and
hog shipments to the U.S. in half. The rules require
detailed labels about the origins of beef, pork and
chicken sold in U.S. stores. That drives up the price

tag of Canadian exports, undermining their competitiveness.
The letter from Rogers referred to such Canadian
threats.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;On June 7, 2013, Canada issued a list of U.S. products (agricultural and non-agricultural exports to
Canada) that would face higher tariffs totalling up to
$1,100,000,000. Mexico is expected to issue a similar
list of U.S. exports totalling several hundred million
dollars,â&#x20AC;? said that section of the note, which was sent
earlier this month without drawing public attention.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;If the complainants do prevail (at the WTO),
industry may be forced to change their labels and
practices once again and the Nation will suffer the
economic impact of approximately $2,000,000,000 in
retaliation actions affecting agriculture and nonagriculture jobs and industries across the U.S. It
is strongly recommended that USDA not force increased costs on industry and consumers and that
the Department delay implementation and enforcement of the final rule . . . until the WTO has completed all decisions related to cases.â&#x20AC;?
That particular aspect of Rogersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 139-page letter
was first reported this week by Inside U.S. Trade.
The publication has since reported that U.S. lawmakers are expected to vote as early as next week on
a measure to repeal the country-of-origin labelling
system in a public congressional meeting related to
the Farm Bill.

Appeal court Two men charged in $23M fraud case
rejects attempt
to rescind
guilty pleas
BY THE CANADIAN PRESS

BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
EDMONTON â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A man who held a group of people
hostage at gunpoint in an Edmonton Workersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Compensation Board building has lost his appeal.
Patrick Clayton had asked the Alberta Court of
Appeal to rescind his guilty pleas or, failing that, reduce his 11-year prison sentence.
Clayton, who was armed with a hunting rifle and
100 rounds of ammunition, herded nine people into
a conference room in the downtown building in 2009.
He surrendered peacefully 10 hours later.
He pleaded guilty to hostage-taking, pointing a
firearm and possession of a weapon for a dangerous
purpose.
Representing himself before the provinceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top
court, Clayton argued that the trial judge had threatened him, that the Crown had promised a lighter
sentence and that the hostage-taking was justified
because of how the board treated him over a workrelated knee injury.
The court, in a unanimous decision, said there
was no evidence to support any of Claytonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s claims
and that the sentence was justified.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;His convictions are the result of his own actions
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not the actions of the WCB,â&#x20AC;? wrote the court.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Many situations arise in life where individuals
face disappointment because others do not meet
their hopes and expectations. That cannot grant
them license to commit violent acts and frighten
innocent bystanders who then become the true victims.â&#x20AC;?
Clayton, a self-confessed cocaine addict, had a
long-standing beef over a claim for a knee injury he
received on a construction site.
On Oct. 21, 2009, he stormed through the front
doors of the compensation board building and shot
over the head of a security guard. Clayton collected
hostages as he rode up in an elevator and walked
down hallways; others hid in their cubicles and
crawled on their stomachs towards back exits.
Court heard Clayton herded the hostages into a
conference room, then flung his gun around as he
ranted about the compensation system and talked
about it being â&#x20AC;&#x153;his last stand.â&#x20AC;?
At first he ordered the hostages to tie themselves
up. But he didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t care when they later got loose or
went to the bathroom and never came back.
When he had one hostage left, Clayton gave the
man a bullet as a souvenir, then surrendered to police. He became angry when he wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t met by a TV
reporter, as a police negotiator had promised.
The sentencing judge said Clayton showed genuine concern for the hostages but also caused them
understandable fear.

CALGARY â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Two Alberta men accused of bilking
1,314 Canadian investors out of more than $23 million have been charged with fraud and theft.
RCMP allege the men behind a Calgary company
called Concrete Equities Inc. promised investors
huge returns if they purchased a stake in undeveloped beach property in Mexico called the Golfo de
Santa Clara project.
The investors included people from Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Ontario.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;People invested as a limited partner to these
investments and they were all putting in between
$10,000 and $100,000. And these investments were
RSP eligible,â&#x20AC;? RCMP Sgt. Conal Archer said Wednesday.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;They put their money in and were hoping they
were going to get upwards of 500 per cent returns â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
what these fellows were telling them.â&#x20AC;?
The RCMPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s financial integrity unit alleges the
men diverted money to other businesses and stole
investorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; money from 2007 until Concrete Equities
crumbled into receivership in 2009.
Dave Humeniuk of St. Albert faces charges of
fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000 and money laundering, and is to appear in court Feb. 27.
A Canada-wide arrest warrant has been issued for
Varun Aurora, of Calgary, who faces fraud and theft
charges. Police believe he may be out of the country.
In January 2012, both men were fined and disciplined by the Alberta Securities Commission over
the sale of limited partnership securities worth $110
million.
The cases involved the Mexico project and other
business deals involving Concrete Equities and Cal-

gary office and retail buildings.
The commission ordered both men to stop trading
or selling securities.
Humeniuk was also permanently banned from being an officer or a director of any financial security
company and ordered to pay an administrative penalty of $3.3 million â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the largest fine ever levied by
the commission on an individual.
Aurora was banned from being an officer or a director of any financial security company until 2021
and ordered to pay an administrative penalty of
$500,000.
Media reports say both men declared personal
bankruptcy in 2009.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Much harm resulted from all of this misconduct,â&#x20AC;?
reads the commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Jan. 9. 2012 ruling.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Prospective investors were given misleading information and denied the prospectus disclosure and
registrant involvement to which they were entitled
to by law.â&#x20AC;?
Archer said the charges laid by RCMP pertain
strictly to the Mexico beach property investment.
He said police began the probe after receiving a
complaint in 2009 from an investor.
A whole team of officers was assigned to the investigation last year.
With fraud prevention month set to begin in
March, Archer has a tip for people who are considering where to invest their money.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;I would say to people just to do their due diligence and be very careful that they do a lot of research into the corporations that they might be investing into,â&#x20AC;? he said.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;My recommendation would be not to invest in
any company that has no assets.â&#x20AC;?

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COMMENT

A4

THURSDAY, JAN. 23, 2014

The U.S.-Canada chasm
HARPER’S VIEWS ON ISRAEL HELP TO SHOW THAT IT’S TIME TO RETHINK OUR RELATIONSHIP
Canadian governments that choose
not to live in the lockstep world of U.S.
foreign policy are rightly applauded
on this side of
the border.
But when
you drift so far
apart that U.S.
officials view
your foreign
policy with a
raised eyebrow
and a sense of
bemusement,
and your key
bilateral infrastructure needs
TIM
are trapped in
HARPER
the benign neglect of American domestic
politics, perhaps it is time for a rethink.
Stephen Harper vowed to carve out
an independent foreign policy with his
majority and he has.
Barack Obama as U.S. president
made the journey to Ottawa right after
his first election victory, then hasn’t
appeared to give a second glance or
thought to the north since.
So, today, we have an administration
in Washington that looks at Harper’s
positions on the Middle East and Iran
and, at least, rates them in diplomatic
speak as “unhelpful.”
Or, as one bilateral expert put it in
non-diplomatic speak: “I’m sure the
National Security Council sees Canada
going rogue and wonders what they’re
smoking up there.”
Then there’s the second track, which
can be called the “nuts and bolts” work
between the two.
That includes, of course, the Keystone XL pipeline, where Harper’s
still-unexplained edict that he would
not take ‘No’ for an answer turned into
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s
loud, “ ‘No’ is fine, just give us an answer” edict to his U.S. counterpart,
John Kerry.
Then there is the curious case of
the new Detroit-Windsor bridge that
Ottawa has essentially offered to build
for Michigan. But while the Harper
government offers a much-needed con-

INSIGHT

tinental gift, the Obama administration will not kick in $250 million for a
needed customs plaza at the same time
the U.S. Senate wants to spend tens of
billions reinforcing the border with
Mexico.
This comes only months after a dispute over improvements to the Peace
Bridge at Fort Erie required high level
diplomatic intervention to avert a bilateral brawl.
There is no linkage between foreign
policy writ large and moribund pipelines and bridges, but neither is good
news for Ottawa.
On Israel, while Kerry is trying to
broker a lasting peace, Washington
watches Harper’s unflinching allegiance to Israel and, although Harper
says he has raised concerns with Israeli policy privately with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a year ago,
Obama raised his concerns publicly,
calling on Israelis to “look at the world
through (Palestinian) eyes,’’ in a Jerusalem speech.
Harper will not publicly criticize Israel, but it is also less than three years

since Harper was credited by Israel
for blocking any reference to its pre1967 borders as a starting point for an
Obama-led peace initiative.
On Iran, Washington is at the forefront of a deal that saw Iran suspend
its most sensitive nuclear development
work in return for an easing of sanctions, but Harper won’t even deal with
Iran, chides allies for jumping on the
Iranian “bandwagon” and tells the
world Tehran must show deeds, not
words.
The understandable Canadian impatience on Keystone has been wellchronicled and the delay on the Michigan bridge may be a matter of piqued
autoworkers lobbying Washington to
delay punishing right-to-work Republican Governor Rick Snyder, but Canadian interests are hurt both times.
One diplomat reminds that we are
hardly the only country sideswiped by
a dysfunctional U.S. political system.
True enough — or maybe Obama has a
blind spot when it comes to the northern border.
A more optimistic view includes an

end to the budget fights that have paralyzed the U.S. system, no immediate
threat of gridlock, and good relations
between Baird and Kerry, who understands his Canadian counterpart was
playing to his own domestic audience
on Keystone.
The glass half full view says money
has started flowing for northern border patrols, with more money coming
available for the 49th parallel.
Maybe, but a strong relationship
with Washington has ripple effects for
this country diplomatically. If we have
Washington’s ear, we become stronger
regional players because there is a
belief we can relay concerns or complaints straight to the bigger player to
the south. There is no sign that Harper has that type of relationship with
Obama — or that either man covets
such a relationship.
It is one thing to tell Israel we are
with them through fire and water, but
maybe our relationship with the U.S.
needs a little more blood and sweat.
Tim Harper is a syndicated Toronto
Star national affairs writer.

Sit, stand, live
— and walk
When you get a couple minutes of free time — and
nobody’s looking — try this simple exercise: In socks
or bare feet, stand in the middle of a room with your
legs crossed. Without using your hands, arms or
knees as aids, sit down, then stand up again.
This test only (officially)
applies to people aged 51
and up, but if you can do this
smoothly and without losing
balance, congratulations. Live
long and prosper.
If you need to touch the
ground to sit and/or rise again,
you apparently have double
the risk of dying within the
next six years, compared to
your more nimble neighbours.
Total failure raises your risk
by a factor of five.
GREG
Which is to say that, all
NEIMAN
other factors considered,
your risk of imminent death
is still slight. But numbers are
numbers, especially to people
publishing studies in medical journals.
The December issue of Discover magazine, both
in print and online, got a lot of attention in our attention-deficit age — and a lot of criticism, showing
that no matter how connected we are by technology,
actual science is still a mystery to many.
Some years ago a Brazilian doctor, Claudio Gil
Araujo, was concerned that his aging patients could
not comfortably pick something up off the floor, or
even had difficulty rising from a chair. It is well
documented in medicine: when seniors lose mobility, their downward spiral accelerates.
But how to make this predictable, and how to
make it easy to explain to older patients that they
must work on flexibility, strength and balance?
The above test became his answer. Araujo followed 2,000 patients, recorded how they could do
the test, and tracked how many of them had died six
years later. His results were published in the European Journal of Cardiology. Not quite The Lancet, but
the study is out there.
Science writers like those at Discover found the
study and made it popular. People like us in the
news media made it viral.

Give yourself five points if you can sit like the illustration, and five more if you can stand again. Deduct half
points for wobbles or loss of balance. Deduct a full point for each touch of the ground for support. A score
of eight or less doubles your risk of dying in the next six years. A score of three or less suggests you are five
time more likely to die in six years than people who can do this well.
And people who don’t understand science (including some news types) went off the deep end.
People who cannot do the sit-stand test are not under a sentence of death. (Hint: we all are.) This study
merely recorded a correlation between flexibility,
strength and balance, and longevity.
People who were athletes with injured knees
made snarky online comments about supposedly being dead. Same for people with arthritis. Runners,
those paragons of health and virtue, apparently also
get weak knees in the face of statistics.
People, the test was never meant to predict your
death. It was made to urge you to embrace life.
All of us simply spend too much time sitting on
our butts. Humans did not evolve to do this successfully. We need to move, to sweat, even to hurt a little,
if we wish to have the best chance of reaching the
fullness of our years.
If you had trouble with the sit-stand test — or even
if it was easy for you — it’s important to remind ourselves that we have to move a lot, every day.
For a few years now, the Red Deer Primary Care
network has sponsored an activity challenge. Participants went on virtual hikes around Jamaica and
Hawaii and, mostly recently, up Mount Everest.
The University of Alberta recently got a provincial grant to sponsor a similar challenge for the entire province, and Red Deer PCN is in the thick of it.
They want a minimum of 1,000 Red Deerians to
challenge themselves to record activity online, equal
to walking 10,000 steps a day, as a team. The goal is to

Alberta Press Council member
The Red Deer Advocate is a sponsoring member of the Alberta Press Council,
an independent body that promotes and
protects the established freedoms of the
press and advocates freedom of information. The Alberta Press Council upholds

collectively walk the equivalent of a Canadian border patrol in 28 days, beginning Feb. 1.
People who have done PCN treks in the past probably still have their StepsOut link on their Favourites bar. Click on that and you’ll see the link to
www.uwalk.ca.
Newbies can just type in the address, and get registered. I still haven’t figured out how to get my registration onto the Red Deer team, but that will come.
I’ve participated in all the local PCN treks over
the years, and I’ll miss not having my team trying to
outrun those dratted school district teachers teams.
(They far too often managed to stay a day ahead of
us.)
But it will be cool to see people from Red Deer
putting in enough activity that, added together, made
up a trip along our national border, coast-to-coast-tocoast.
The older we get, the more important it becomes;
we need to stay active in all ways: walking, running,
biking, swimming — even using the stairs (10 flights
of 10 steps a day, that’s your goal).
Do the sit-stand test, it’s fun.
But more important, clip on a pedometer, and
make sure 10,000 steps a day (or equivalent in other
activity) is your daily minimum.
That’s a far better guarantor of health and wellbeing.
Greg Neiman is a retired Advocate editor. Follow his
blog at readersadvocate.blogspot.ca or email greg.neiman.blog@gmail.com.

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within 60 days of publication, regarding
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LETTERS
Poor city budget process
equals poor results
An open letter to the members of Red
Deer city council, in relation to the 2014
operating budget:
We are on the same team — striving
to make our great city even greater,
and in your very important role, we
hope that you sincerely consider the
significant taxpayer savings opportunities below.
Once again, our city’s operating budget has increased spending by more
than combined inflation and population growth in our city.
For 2014, our city’s operating budget
is reported to be about $305 million.
In 2003, our operational spending was
only about $89 million. If our city’s operating budget strived to limit spending increases to our combined population and inflation increases for this
period, operational spending this year
would be more than $100 million less!
Isn’t that remarkable? A $100-million
reduction in taxes and fees translates
into about $1,000 for every man, woman
and child in our city, each year.
How has our city’s spending spiraled so out of control?
We invite our new mayor and council to seize the opportunity to fix our
previous administration’s flawed budgeting processes. A critical step would
be for our new council (not city administrators, who are in an inherent conflict of interest) to engage the services
of a reputable, independent management professional to review the city’s
operations on a “value for money” or
“zero-based” budget basis and report
savings opportunities to council, which
could be applied to next year’s operating budget.
For example, for snow removal,
rather than automatically adding the
cost of the increase to city taxpayers,
a zero-based budget would require
our city manager to look within his
sprawling government organization for
savings opportunities and reallocate
resources from areas of marginal utility to areas of greater priority. Sure
this requires more effort from our city
manager, but with annual salary and
benefits of $386,000 in 2012 (as per the
city’s 2012 annual report, 2013 is not
yet available to the public), shouldn’t
taxpayers be able to expect more accountability and capability from him?
Out of a $305-million budget, it is
objectionable for our city manager to
bring to council unpalatable proposals from his departments for cost savings that punish city residents, such as
increasing weekend closure dates for
city recreational facilities! We invite
our new council not follow the mistakes of the past mayor and councils
by limiting themselves to disingenuous
proposals which fail to truly confront
the structural inefficiencies in our
City’s growing bureaucracies.
When our city strives for excellence
in its responsible use of taxpayer dollars, it makes it easier for individuals, families, and businesses in our
community to do likewise. We invite
all city residents to visit our website
(www.reddeertaxpayers.ca) to learn
more about opportunities to make our
city better.
Jason Stephan, CA, LB, TEP
President
Red Deer Taxpayers’ Association
Email: info@reddeertaxpayers.ca

Performing arts festival
needs help from RDC
A newspaper article on Dec. 27,
2013, on the Festival of the Performing
Arts in Red Deer outlined the financial difficulties of the festival. This
festival was organized by the Kiwanis
Club of Red Deer in 1964.
A festival that attracts as many as
1,000 young musicians from the Central Alberta requires a large space to
conduct the musical event. Red Deer
College has been very gracious in making its facilities available at the end of

A5

THURSDAY, JAN. 23, 2014

the college winter term. College Art
Centre staff have been a great help in
the organization of the event.
The festival board of directors now
face both new administrative costs as a
result of cutbacks to the college budget
and reallocation of the staff who have
assisted the festival. Rent for the college has increased for the festival (and
in another four years) will increase 25
per cent compared to last year.
Many Red Deer citizens have made
significant financial contributions to
the college over time. Now would be
a good time for the college to contribute back to a Red Deer organization
devoted to the development of Alberta
youth. Financial relief to the festival
in the form of reduced rents would
work to strengthen both the festival
and, in the longer term, the college. It
could be that without such financial
help the festival will have to find other
locations in the city or discontinue its
operation altogether.
In fairness to the college Arts Centre administration, I don’t think the
centre has ever received sufficient operating funds to manage its service.
However, the use of the centre was regulated by a joint use agreement with
the City of Red Deer. The agreement
was constructed to ensure that the centre’s use would be shared with citizens of Red Deer. The Festival of the
Performing Arts is a festival planned
for city and district young people, and
should benefit from the original agreement the city made with the college.
Richard J. Huddleston
Red Deer

City decision-making won’t
set us up for future success
In response to David Plumtree’s letter on Monday, Jan. 20:
After having read Mr. Plumtree’s
letter, I felt compelled to reiterate the
disturbing accuracy of his comments.
Our “trusted” decision-makers are,
quite simply, in over their heads at this
point in Red Deer’s development.
Red Deer is in a very challenging
position in that it is straddling the
line between small urban community
and large urban community (within
the context of Canadian cities) and
seems woefully under-prepared for its
growth. Red Deer isn’t handling its design, its restoration, its crime, its traffic, its snow, or its future planning with
much alacrity.
From fluoride to bike lanes to windrows in the alley for garbage trucks
now instructed to use the front streets,
Red Deer has shown an ability to fumble decisions rashly and without much
responsibility.
There are few citizens who I’ve spoken to who haven’t rolled their eyes at
decision-making here for the past four
years and our response as voters was
to re-elect every incumbent to continue fumbling the issues that will shape
this city for the next decade or more.
Like it or not, Red Deer is growing quickly. How long before Gaetz is
so overwhelmed with traffic that your
drive from Chiles to Bower takes an
hour? I timed one trip this year at 40
minutes from point to point.
How many more days will the north
end wait for the comically inefficient
snow removal to tackle its streets? Better hope it doesn’t snow again before
hand.
Thinking of moving to Red Deer?
Better think twice before buying
property north of the river because
its routes aren’t as important as the
bustling corridors of College Park or
neophyte Garden Heights (with its vital traffic artery of Garrison Circle, a
circle that if you haven’t driven it yet
secretly connects 67th Street to Sirius
and thus becomes mankind’s greatest
single achievement in stellar navigation ... apparently).
We have a tax hike this year, by the
way. Has Red Deer earned that money
this term?
Or is it asking you to pay for the
mistakes it is doomed to repeat — mis-

Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff

The lights of City Hall Park and the decorations at the Old Court House in Red
Deer light up the night in downtown Red Deer during the Christmas season.
takes that one re-elected councilor
said to me this fall (at an overcrowded
traffic disaster farmers market) were
“clear mistakes of judgment and lessons learned as we went along. It is,
after all, a learning curve.”
I know I feel reassured that Alberta’s third largest city is in professional
and reliable hands.
David Gibbons
Red Deer

Downtown Red Deer lights
great at Christmas
I wish to thank the folks at Bilton
and the City of Red Deer for the great
job done on the downtown holiday
light display.
I appreciate the effort made on behalf of the citizens of Red Deer.
My family and I enjoyed walking
through the lovely display.
Thank you again for helping make
the holidays bright.

Margaret MacLean
Red Deer

Christmas donations were
much appreciated
I do volunteering in one of the institutions that offers care for people who
need constant monitoring for different
sickness or just age.
I just want to thank Family and
Community Support Services for all
the donations made for Christmas to
different caring centres.
They donated 500 gift bags that were
decorated by elementary kids from
different schools containing blankets,
sleepers, personal care products, etc.
This put our residents in tears.
A big thank you and please do not
stop the awesome work! It is greatly
appreciated.
Karen Pinto-Larsen
Red Deer

The Partners and Staff of Johnston Ming Manning
LLP would like to congratulate
Christopher A. Rickards, who was appointed
Queen’s Counsel (Q.C.) on December 31, 2013,
by the Lieutenant Governor of the Province
of Alberta.
Queen’s Counsel appointments are made once
every two years to recognize and honor a select
group of lawyers for their exceptional capability
and talent and for their contributions to the
administration of justice, contributions to their
profession, and contributions to the community.
Chris Rickards joined Johnston Ming Manning LLP
in 1992, became a partner of the firm in 1997 and is
currently the firm’s managing partner. His practice is
focused on civil litigation with a particular emphasis on
personal injury law. His other areas of practice include
commercial litigation, estate litigation, construction litigation
and employment law.
David M. Manning Q.C.
Jennifer A. Campbell
Chad J. Evans
Andrew J. Luft

FCM wants ‘polluter pay’ system
INDUSTRY SHOULD ASSUME FULL LIABILITY FOR ACCIDENTS AND SPILLS: MUNICIPALITIES
working group was formed after Lac-Megantic, and
it came the day after the Canadian Transportation
Agency wrapped up a consultation on revamping insurance for rail carriers.
Dauphin said current rules gauge each railway’s
“adequate” liability coverage on a case-by-case basis.
“We want more meat around the bone,” said Dauphin, the mayor of Laval, Que. “What does ‘adequate’
insurance mean? We had a lot of discussion with the
minister about that, not only today but in the past.”

BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA — Municipal leaders emerged from
a meeting with Transport Minister Lisa Raitt on
Wednesday determined to see railways, shippers
and producers of dangerous goods assume full liability for accidents and spills.
Ensuring rail companies are properly insured for
even catastrophic events like the devastating crash
in Lac-Megantic, Que., is the next major hurdle in
fixing the system, Claude Dauphin, president of the
Federation of Canadian Municipalities, said.
“It’s on the table. That’s our third key area — to
make sure that any accident, incident or catastrophe
won’t be downloaded to our taxpayers.”
That could include a fund that spreads the liability for major disasters — currently shouldered
largely by railways — across the full supply chain,
from producers to consumers.
Dauphin and others are quick to praise Transport
Canada and the minister for regulatory changes
made since the July 6 derailment, explosions and
fire in Lac-Megantic that claimed 47 lives, Canada’s
worst rail disaster in more than 100 years.
Municipalities are now being notified about the
types of freight shipped through their precincts. Increasingly common oil shipments are to be classified
as dangerous goods, which will require railways to
develop emergency assistance response plans.
Raitt met for more than an hour Wednesday with
the federation’s rail safety working group, where
she was told the FCM wants all flammable liquids,
including ethanol, classified as dangerous.
It was the third such meeting since the municipal

‘MUNICIPALITIES ARE 100 PER CENT
UNITED IN THE SENSE THAT IT’S NOT
OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO PAY FOR
THOSE CLEAN-UPS. IT’S NOT OUR
RESPONSIBILITY TO HAVE TO BUY
INSURANCE FOR THAT.’
— DON ATCHISON
MAYOR OF SASKATOON

Raitt issued a news release following Wednesday’s meeting that called rail safety a “shared responsibility amongst international partners, provinces, territories, municipalities and industry.”
On Thursday, the Transportation Safety Board
will issue three new recommendations from its preliminary report on the accident.
But more needs to be done, say municipal officials — even those who are pleased with the federal
government response to date.

Saskatoon Mayor Don Atchison lauded the “tremendous amount of progress being made” on rail
safety and called the speed of the federal response
“breathtaking.”
But his blunt assessment of what’s next: “Who’s
going to pay for what?”
“Municipalities are 100 per cent united in the
sense that it’s not our responsibility to pay for those
clean-ups,” said Atchison. “It’s not our responsibility
to have to buy insurance for that.”
One idea in the mix is an industry fund, similar
to the one for ocean shippers, that would pool resources in the event of a catastrophic accident such
as Lac-Megantic.
“We didn’t discuss the details, but it’s in the air,”
Dauphin said of the fund proposal.
He was being overly reticent.
In a submission to the Canadian Transportation
Agency, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities
stresses that the public purse is effectively the insurer when significant railway accidents occur.
“These costs must be borne by the industry in accordance with the ‘polluter pay’ principle through
an industry-funded comprehensive liability insurance regime which provides full coverage for catastrophes,” states the federation brief.
The federation argues it is unlikely railways could
obtain enough liability insurance on the open market to cover the worst events.
It calls for a national mechanism, financed
through contributions from everyone involved in
transportation of dangerous goods by rail: carriers,
importers, brokers, producers and industrial purchasers. The fund would be accessible to anyone
who has suffered a loss.

Toll-free support line helps soldiers, families connect with services
obtained by The Canadian Press, shows the operation only came up to full speed within the last two
weeks.
National Defence spokeswoman Marie-Helene
Brisson says the agency increased the number of
positions slowly and made sure processes were in
order before advertising it.
She says the resources to increase staff were
made possible by reducing management overhead
costs.
There have been eight apparent suicides in the
military over the last two months, prompting a lot of
public attention on the care and services available
to soldiers and their families.
A veterans advocate welcomed the arrival of
the full service, but expressed concern about what
comes after someone gets in touch with the counsellor.
“It’s one thing to increase access to a family sup-

BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA — An expanded toll-free support line
for struggling members of the military and their relatives is now operating around the clock, eight months
after it was first promised.
The line, operated by the Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services Group, offers trained
counsellors who can help soldiers and their families
connect with local services, community help and
military chaplains.
Separate from existing operational stress injury
support and crisis lines, the expanded service comes
amid a recent series of suicides among Canadian
Forces veterans.
The expansion of the family support line was announced in April of last year and again in October as
part of National Family Week. But a general order,

port line, it’s another to ensure the social and mental
resources are available in an expedient and timely
fashion,” said Mike Blais, president of Canadian Veterans Advocacy.
“At this point in time, that is the major question.
When people do reach out, is there help available?”
In a fall 2012 report, military ombudsman Pierre
Daigle expressed frustration at the “chronic undermanning of the CF mental health” unit. Support to
families had improved considerably over the years,
said Daigle, but just because programs are expanded
doesn’t mean they are “sufficient.”
“We need adequate resources that can be brought
to bear in a timely, efficient manner,” said Blais,
who added that he doesn’t see much improvement in
the 18 months since Daigle’s report.
Earlier this month, veterans took matters into
their own hands and set up their own hotline to help
fellow soldiers in crisis.

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RED DEER ADVOCATE Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014 A7

CANADA

BRIEFS

Harper visits Sea of Galilee,
Hula Valley bird sanctuary
JERUSALEM — One day, it was throngs of jubilant Israelis reaching out to touch Prime Minister
Stephen Harper.
The next, it was flocks
of cranes close enough to
touch descending upon a
swampy valley to put on
a show for Harper and
his wife, Laureen, who
delighted in the spectacle.
The Harpers visited
the bird sanctuary in Israel’s picturesque Hula
Valley, one that will soon
be renamed in honour of
the prime minister due
to his full-throated support of the Jewish state
since he came to power
eight years ago.
Along with some members of the Canadian
delegation in the Middle
East this week with
Harper, the prime ministerial couple was pulled
around the sanctuary by
a tractor on Wednesday
as they sat in an open-air
trailer.
They marvelled at the
tens of thousands of common cranes being fed
simultaneously — and
very noisily — by sanctuary workers. At one
point, Harper stood up in
the vehicle and peered
through binoculars to get
an even closer look.

stark void left by one of the most popular premiers
this country has ever seen.
Those words would haunt Dunderdale. Just over
three years since she became the uncontested Tory
leader, political observers say it will be a steep
climb back to contention for her party before the
next election.
“Ancient Hebrew scriptures teach us that there’s
a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens,” Dunderdale said as she announced her departure.
“Just as you know when it’s time to step up, you
also know when it is time to step back, and that time
for me is now.”

French aircraft-maker ramps up pitch
to Ottawa in CF-18 replacement
OTTAWA — French aircraft maker Dassault Aviation is promising lower long-term support costs if the
deficit-conscious Harper government chooses its Rafale fighter jet to replace the air force’s aging CF-18s.
Yves Robins, a senior Dassault vice-president,
says the company’s proposal includes the unrestricted transfer of technology.
That could shave hundreds of millions of dollars
off the life-time price tag to operate and upgrade the
fighter, which is already in service with the French
air force.

JA N UA RY

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4 SALE
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JANUARY 23 -26

Newfoundland
and Labrador
premier resigns
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — As
Premier Kathy Dunderdale announced her
resignation Wednesday
there was a moment
when her voice caught
and she fought tears.
“Public service always, always means great
sacrifices for families
and so it has been for
mine,” she said, glancing
at her daughter Sara.
“But my family has
been absolutely extraordinary. I could not have
served otherwise.”
Dunderdale, who has
been under growing
pressure, announced
she will quit Friday as
premier of Newfoundland and Labrador and
leader of the Progressive
Conservative party. The
defection Monday of a
once loyal supporter cut
short a family vacation
and spurred what party
insiders have called her
inevitable exit.
It’s an early end to
a landmark victory on
Oct. 11, 2011, when the
province’s first female
premier — the daughter
of a Burin Peninsula
fisherman and one of 11
children — won a majority government.
Her Tories took 37
of 48 seats and Dunderdale spoke at the time
of wanting not one, but
two four-year terms in
the top job she inherited
when Danny Williams
quit politics in December 2010.
“One of the greatest
challenges is going to be
that I’m not Danny Williams,” she said of the

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46023A23

TORONTO — Toronto
Mayor Rob Ford says a
recently released video
of him going on a rant
using a Jamaican accent
was a “minor setback”
and that his personal life
doesn’t interfere with his
job.
He says the clip—
which shows him incoherent and using
profanities — was “unfortunate,” but adds that
everyone experiences
“these difficult bumps in
life.”
Ford says suggestions
from his fellow councillors that his personal
life is impacting city
business is absolute nonsense.
The mayor has admitted that he had been
drinking before the
video was taken Monday
night at a Toronto restaurant, an admission that
ended weeks of adamant
vows he had given up
alcohol.
Ford had said the incident took place on his
own time.
He says he’s working hard every day to
improve his health and
well-being, but adds that
is a private matter.

DISHWASHER

46007A2-4

Rob Ford calls
latest video a
‘minor setback’

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If you’re heading to the saltwater flats for some winter fly fishing, it’s not a bad idea to do some casting practice, or even take a lesson with a certified instructor, so
you’re comfortable with the distances and winds that you’re likely to encounter.
This winter of our discontent, cabin fever, the
shack nasties, whatever you call it, set in prematurely. The first of November blizzard sent many Alberta
anglers fleeing, heaven bent for warmer climes and
some saltwater flats fly fishing.
Several blizzards later,
and the stay-at-homes are getting the message: deep snow
is making it difficult to get
to open dam tailwaters and
spring creeks like the North
Raven River here at home.
Even the most demented
ice fishermen are complaining that getting out onto the
lakes is difficult and strange,
hazardous conditions prevail there when you do: slush,
thin ice and cracks under the
BOB
snow.
SCAMMELL
The natural result of all
this is that I am fielding more
reader inquiries than ever before for tips, hints and help
about winter fishing destinations, how to arrange
trips, what to take, how to take it, and on and on.
I may no longer be the best person to ask. Outside
my front door it is déjà vu all over again, back to early February 2005 when I took my last saltwater flats
fly fishing trip: a 10-day escape to Cuba.
Earlier than that, I climbed the mountain of snow
around the close park out there to get into the hip
deep snow on the level and practise casting, particularly my double haul, with my new seven weight, St.
Croix four-piece travel fly rod with fighting butt, and
Islander saltwater reel, spooled with a Rio weight
forward floating, extra stiff fly line to prevent it getting too limp to cast in the tropic heat.
But out there, even on a sunny, bluebird late January day, the line was stiff as an icicle and would not
respond to my strongest strokes and heaviest hauls.
The neighbours still giggle when they remember the
show.
The trip to Cuba was fabulous, and the current
view out my front door gives me pipe dreams of a
return. In 2003, Herself staked me to my most expensive day of fishing, ever, on the Fiume Sieve in Tuscany, a tributary to the Arno. Our last trip, too early
in April 2007, skunked me on salmon and brown
trout in the Leguer River in Brittany.
Many callers have already booked a trip; others
are considering options. Most are interested in saltwater flats fly fishing, but a surprising number yearn
for spring or summertime now in the southern hemisphere: New Zealand, Patagonia, Chile, etc.
I tell all comers and goers about the necessity of
multi-piece rods that will fit into checked luggage
along with reels, etc., to help ensure that your gear
arrives when and where you do and does not get stolen.
For those heading to the saltwater flats, I advise
some casting practice with those rods, maybe even a
lesson from a certified instructor on the double haul
to handle the distances and winds on the saltwater
flats anywhere. Lefty Kreh’s classic Fly Fishing in
Salt Water is required reading for flats fishermen,
particularly beginners.
Outfitters, big and small, can ease the where to
go worries and sometimes the expense of getting
there. Pioneering Red Deer River outfitters, Garry
and Connie Pierce (www.tailwaterdrifters.com) have
found great deals and great fishing for many anglers
I know: to Punta Allen on the Yucatan Peninsula; the

OUTDOORS

Contributed photo

ABOVE: My first — and biggest — bonefish from the Florida Keys.
RIGHT: Benba, me and “baby” tarpon in Cuba.
last couple of times I talked to them, they were enthusing about the Bahamas.
Anyone who dreams of fishing elsewhere — anywhere — should subscribe to the monthly The Angling Report (“Serving the Angler Who Travels”)
(www.anglingreport.com). It is always among my
month’s great reads and is full of reports on great
fishing trips anywhere in the world. The current
issue headlines Found! Low-Cost Fishing on Cuba’s
North Coast, An Affordable Bristol Bay (Alaska) Experience and Dateline Colorado: Trip-Planning File: Three
Trophy Trout Spots near Famed Ski Areas.
Lately AR has been reporting on airlines that
permit three-day stopovers for some fishing without
penalty en route to final destinations. From AR you
can order past reports on any fishing destination in
the world that might interest you.
Before my traveling came to an end, I had been
collecting reports for a spring-summer-fall lifetime
dream fishing trip that I might now be able to do
on one ticket with some of those stopovers: IcelandIreland-Wales, for salmon and sea trout, or sewin;
Spain, for zebra trout; and, finally, Slovenia for the
most beautiful rivers in the world and the huge
and ultra-wary marmorata, marble trout, in some of
them.
Where would I go if I were heading for the south
and saltwater flats fishing right now?
Unquestionably the north coast of Cuba would be
first, maybe trying that AR trip.
Next would be Belize, the best for flats beginners,
maybe even geezers who have been there before.
Finally, the Florida Keys, because I love the
place, and that’s where I caught my first and biggest
bonefish and now that I can’t go anyway, the cost of

another pipe dream doesn’t matter.
Bob Scammell is an award-winning columnist who
lives in Red Deer. He can be reached at bscam@telusplanet.net.

Understanding plants’ growth habits make cleanup decision easier
Gardens are at the mercy of Mother Nature.
This winter, the deep layer
of snow has provided more
than enough insulation for
perennials and small shrubs.
Fifteen cm (six inches) of snow
keeps the plants at a constant
temperature regardless of the
weather, so this year even the
windswept areas are well protected.
Larger plants have not
fared as well. Heavy, wet snow
and wind has snapped and
torn branches and limbs.
LINDA
Understanding plants’
TOMLINSON
growth habits make cleanup
decisions easier.
New growth on a spruce or
pine tree develops at the ends
of the branches. When ends or tops of branches are
broken, it will take two years for the plant to put out
new growth. If the break or cut is in an area where
there are no needles, it is unlikely that new growth
will appear. It is best to cut the branch back flush to
the main trunk.
When a spruce or pine loses its top, one or more

GARDENING

upper branched will slowly move upwards to take
the place of the lost leader. The process can be
helped by choosing one of the top branches and tying
it to a stick to keep the branch upright. In a couple of
years, the support can be removed as the branch will
have developed into the leader.
Hardy deciduous plants are more resilient. They
will continue to grow as long as they have a good root
system.
When a living deciduous tree is cut down, new
shoots will grow from the base or roots. If a large
branch is removed, the plant will send out a tremendous amount of new growth in that same area
attempting to produce enough vegetation to balance the intake from the roots. This type of growth
is called water sprouts as they are long and skinny
with no side branches. Removing the majority of the
sprouts as they develop will help the plant form a
better shape but is an ongoing process.
Start cleaning up damaged plants by removing the
broken bits and assessing the damage. How much of
the plant is left? Is the plant healthy? Is it safe? Is it
pleasing to the eye? How important is the tree to the
landscape?
The rule of thumb is to never remove more than a
quarter of a plant in one season. If a larger amount
of the plant has to be removed, think about removing

the plant.
Examine the plant to see if the wood is healthy.
Is there any rot? Does sap ooze from the bark? Are
there sunken areas in the bark? A yes answer to any
of these questions means that the plant is not healthy
and could become a safety hazard.
Safety is a big issue. A weak or rotten tree or
branch can do damage when it falls. A sudden bump
forming from under the ground within a few feet of
a tree can be a sign that an anchor root has broken,
leaving the plant susceptible to the next strong wind.
When this is the case, it is time to remove the tree.
Once the broken pieces are removed, look at the
shape of the plant. If it is attractive or functional,
it is time to remove jagged branches. Cut broken
branched back to the next branch. A smooth cut will
heal faster than a rough one. Stubs rarely heal over.
When a plant is not attractive but functional, it
can be left and a new plant added to the same area
in the spring. Once the new plant is established, remove the old one.
As the snow melts, keep an eye on the trees and
shrubs, cleaning up broken plants as they become
assessable.
Linda Tomlinson is a horticulturalist who lives near
Rocky Mountain House. She can be reached at www.igardencanada.com or your_garden@hotmail.com.

HEALTH

B2

THURSDAY, JAN. 23, 2014

Fever medicines
may help spread flu
PEOPLE FEEL BETTER BUT MAY BE MORE CONTAGIOUS: STUDY

DRS. OZ AND ROIZEN

BY SHERYL UBELACKER
THE CANADIAN PRESS
Taking over-the-counter medications for the aches, pains and
fever caused by flu may make people feel somewhat better, but it
also could make them more contagious — resulting in increased
cases and more deaths among the
population, a study suggests.
Researchers at McMaster University say medicines like ibuprofen and acetaminophen can ease
some flu symptoms, including
bringing down fever.
“People often take — or give
their kids — fever-reducing drugs
so they can go to work or school,”
said David Earn, a professor of
mathematics who led the study.
“They may think the risk of infecting others is lower because
the fever is lower,” said Earn. “In
fact, the opposite may be true: the
ill people may give off more virus
because fever has been reduced.”
That’s because fever has been
shown in a number of studies to
lower the amount of some viruses
in the body. Suppressing that uptick in temperature — one way the
immune system fights infection
— appears to leave a person with
a greater amount of virus to shed,
making them more infectious to
others.
“We’ve discovered that this
increase has significant effects
when we scale up to the level of
the whole population,” said Earn,
who specializes in mathematical
projections of infectious disease
transmission.
“I think it’s really something
that people should consider,” he
said Tuesday from Hamilton. “And
all they need to do is remember
that they could be more infectious
if they take this medication and so
should be cautious.”
Using complex mathematical modelling, Earn and his coauthors estimated that fever-reducing medicines could raise the
number of flu cases by five per
cent, a figure that would account
for tens of thousands of cases and
an estimated extra 1,000 deaths
across North America each year.
In other words, an estimated
1,000 of the roughly 40,000 annual flu deaths might not have occurred, the study suggests.
But the researchers, whose report is published in the journal
Proceedings of the Royal Society
B: Biological Sciences, say that
doesn’t mean people should stop
taking medicines to get relief from
flu symptoms.
“That’s not what we’re saying,”
stressed Earn. “Our paper isn’t
about whether or not you should
take medication to reduce your fever. That’s something that ideally
you should decide in consultation
with a physician — for you, individually, whether it’s good or bad

Five steps
to reaching
a state
of great
health
File photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS

David Earn, professor of mathematics at McMaster University. His study
looks at whether taking fever-reducing medications could affect the
spread of seasonal flu.
for your health.
“The point that we’re making
is that if you take the medication,
then there’s an effect on others
that people don’t realize. And
that’s that you could be more infectious than you were without
taking the medication. So you
need to be extra cautious about
transmitting the infection to others.”
To come up with their estimate,
the researchers used data that included experiments on ferrets —
considered the best animal model
for human influenza — showing
increased virus shedding in the
absence of fever-reducing drugs,
called antipyretics.
They then used the mathematical model to compute how the
increase in the amount of virus
given off by a single person taking fever-reducing drugs would
increase the overall number of
cases in a typical year, or in a year
when a new strain of influenza
caused a pandemic, such as H1N1
did in 2009.
“This research is important because it will help us understand
how better to curb the spread of
influenza,” said Dr. David Price,
chair of family medicine at McMaster. “As always, Mother Nature knows best,” he said. “Fever
is a defence mechanism to protect

ourselves and others. Fever-reducing medication should only be
taken to take the edge off the discomfort, not to allow people to go
out into the community when they
should still stay home.”
Dr. Allison McGeer, director
of infection control at Toronto’s
Mount Sinai Hospital, agreed the
study raises important questions
that need to be answered.
“I don’t think you can take away
from this, though, that antipyretics
increase the spread of human influenza or that we can in any way
quantitate that,” McGeer said.
“The data, for instance, on increased shedding is in ferrets.
And ferrets are not humans. It
might well be the same in humans
... but it’s not something we know
the answer to.”
The study’s conclusions also
hinge on the idea that people who
take fever-reducing medicines are
more likely to interact with others, she said, but that research
has not yet been done.
“We know substantially how to
prevent seasonal flu — it’s called
vaccination,” said McGeer.
“It’s clearly an important question, but I don’t think that should
change what we’re telling people
to do at the moment: vaccinate,
hand-wash and stay home when
you’re sick.”

Doormen, other N.Y.C. building
workers trained to spot signs
of abuse against elderly
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — New York’s
doormen are being enlisted as an
army of eyes to look for signs of
elder abuse: a stranger picking up
the mail, the sudden presence of
a rarely seen relative with an attitude, a bruise.
“Doormen know everything
that’s going on,” Joy Solomon said
before conducting a training session for doormen, porters and
other apartment workers, fittingly held over the din of whirring
dryers in the laundry room of a
Manhattan building. “They know
who’s going in, who’s going out.
They have access and they have
a relationship of trust. They’re a
friendly face.”
Solomon, director of the Weinberg Center for Elder Abuse Prevention at the Hebrew Home in
the Bronx, partnered with the
building workers’ union in a grantfunded program to help doormen
spot various kinds of elder abuse
— physical, sexual, psychological
and financial.
The training, which began several years ago, has been broadened to include others who come
in contact with isolated seniors,
such as Meals-on-Wheels delivery
workers. An online version is in
the works that could spread its
message throughout the union’s
coverage area, from Massachusetts to Florida.

MIKE ROIZEN & MEHMET OZ

Every new set of eyes counts.
The National Center for Elder
Abuse says lack of detection
makes it impossible to know the
extent of elder abuse. Solomon
quoted from a 2011 study that said
only about 4 per cent of elder
abuse incidents in New York are
reported.
As an example of what can
happen, she told the gathering of
about 15 doormen and other workers of a woman whose son stole
her prosthetic leg and sold it for
drug money.
“It got him money and it kept
her isolated and dependent on
him,” Solomon said, adding that
the man eventually drove the elderly woman into poverty and she
now lives in a shelter.
Javier Rosa, who works the 11
p.m.-to-7 a.m. shift at a building,
said he knows from his own experience that this is an idea that can
work.
“There’s an old lady, sometimes
she comes down late at night, she
just wants to talk,” Rosa said. “She
knows I’m here, she has nobody
else, she trusts me. If something
was wrong, I would know. I would
never let anything happen to her.”
Solomon said workers should
trust their gut feelings: “If you
think something is going on, you’re
probably right.”
She urged the workers to be
on the alert for signs of physical
decline, mental confusion and
depression, which can increase a

tenant’s vulnerability.
Perpetrators are often the elderly person’s own relatives but
can also be bank workers, telemarketers and street scammers. A
MetLife Mature Market Institute
study found that elderly Americans lose $2.9 billion each year to
financial abuse.
Solomon said a doorman can
bring the mail directly to the tenant if he suspects someone is
stealing a Social Security check.
If a daughter walks out with a
painting, she said, mention it to
the tenant.
“You might say, ‘I saw your
daughter going out with a painting,’ and if she says ‘What painting?’ you know she’s unaware.”
Some workers were concerned
they could endanger their jobs by
reporting an unconfirmed suspicion, but they were told they can
make calls anonymously to the
city’s Adult Protective Services
agency.
A spokeswoman said the agency is supportive of the training but
can’t say how many calls might
have been prompted by it.
Gene Kastner, manager of the
building where the training took
place, said he understands the
vulnerability of the elderly from
his time as a New York City police
detective.
“We like to think of all our tenants as one big family,” he said,
“and this is what a good family
would do.”

When we heard recently that 77-year-old snowbird Guy Gentile had stuck to his walking routine
for 6,575 straight days, covering 21,162 km, we were
impressed!
Seems what keeps Guy going is never using anything as an excuse to stay home.
Plus, he sets goals: At first he wanted to walk for
as many consecutive days as Lou Gehrig’s 2,130 consecutive baseball games; now his ambition is to keep
walking daily until his oldest grandson’s 50th birthday in 2037 — Guy will be 100.
You know we love walking — 10,000 steps daily.
But to really protect your health, use these Five
Steps to Great Health.
They’ll help you dodge depression, diabetes, dementia, cancer and cardiovascular problems, plus a
whole roster of other wear-you-down, shorten-yourlife health challenges.
You want to combine No. 1 Walking with:
No. 2 Strength training: Use barbells or stretch
bands for a minimum of 30 minutes, two to three
days a week.
No. 3 Smart nutrition: Eliminate red meat, trans
fats, added sugars and syrups, and any grain that
isn’t 100 per cent whole; take 900 mg of omega-3 DHA
daily; and ask your doctor about taking a low-dose
aspirin daily, with half a glass warm water before
and after.
No. 4 Emotional connections: Stay close to friends
and family; care for others; and nurture healthy
sexual relationships.
No. 5 Stress and sleep control: Meditate daily, and
get seven to eight hours of sleep nightly.
And whether you’ve already taken those steps to
better health or not, we bet you’d like to know just
how healthy you are right now and where you can
make improvements.
Fortunately, there are three “no doctor required”
tests that assess your health-related habits and
health status.
And they really work, because, as we’ve long said,
your habits really do control your genes and how
well and how long you live.
The Framingham Study (running — with updates
and new participants — since 1948) established the
reliability of using info on your blood pressure,
smoking, obesity, diabetes, physical inactivity and
blood lipids, as well as psychosocial issues (love, sex,
family, work, etc.) to predict your risk of death from
heart disease.
And its Heart Health Test (cvdrisk.nhlbi.nih.gov)
has long been the go-to self-check.
Now a new study, published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, explores such tests’ usefulness. University of California San Diego researchers looked at
the Framingham Heart Health Test and the 93-question RealAge Test (www.sharecare.com/realagetest)
created by Dr. Roizen.
They correlated the RealAge test results from
a subset of takers with California Department of
Public Health death records and found that if the
RealAge Test said your RealAge was 35 (even if you
were actually 50), your risk of dying was equal to a
35-year-old’s.
And it identified a person’s mortality risk more
accurately than the Framingham test. (Full disclosure: Dr. Roizen is a member of Sharecare’s advisory
board.)
Want an even faster way to get a snapshot of your
health?
Measure your waist circumference by placing
a tape measure at belly button level. Belly fat is
super-inflammatory and a trigger for cardiovascular
problems, heart attack, insulin resistance, diabetes,
cognitive problems, sexual dysfunction and more.
Even normal-weight women with a waist of 35 or
more inches triple their risk of death from heart disease.
So, gals, aim for a waist circumference of less than
35 inches; guys less than 40.
Then there’s one more test — it takes a doctor, but
we recommend it!
Have a hsCRP (high sensitivity C-reactive protein)
blood test.
It measures your level of bodywide inflammation.
A reading of 1.0 to 3.0 mg/L indicates average risk
for inflammation-related conditions like heart disease, diabetes and dementia; above 3.0 indicates that
you’re at high risk for developing those health problems even if you’re otherwise healthy and your lousy
LDL cholesterol level is OK.
Next steps: When you get your results from any
of these tests, you want to sit down with your doctor
and make a plan to reduce your health risks using a
combination of the Five Steps to Great Health and
whatever medications and treatments are recommended.
With that knowledge — and the stick-to-it spirit of
Guy — you can change your future!
The YOU Docs, Mehmet Oz, host of The Dr. Oz Show
and Mike Roizen of Cleveland Clinic, are authors of
YOU: Losing Weight. To live your healthiest, visit sharecare.com.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

B3

THURSDAY, JAN. 23, 2014

Fax 403-341-6560 editorial@reddeeradvocate.com

SNOW SCULPTURE PRESENTATION

● Bower Place Community Association seniors’ coffee and card parties are held on the last
Tuesday of each month at Bower Kin Place from
1:30 to 3 p.m. Join the fun on Jan. 28. Call Marlene
at 403-343-0632.

Wednesday
● Puppet Club is held on Wednesdays at
Dawe Branch of Red Deer Public Library from 3:30
to 5 p.m. for children ages seven years and up to
make a variety of puppets, and take part in interactive plays. On Jan. 29 the theme will be Aesop’s
Fables.
● Red Deer Branch of Alberta Genealogical
Society meeting will be held on Jan. 29, 7 p.m.
at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
in the Bower neighbourhood. Michael Dawe will
speak about his new book Red Deer, The Memorable City. Contact Mary-Joan at 403-346-3886.
● Red Deer Legion Old-time Dance with Silver and Gold is on Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. Cost is $7, or
$13.95 with buffet starting at 5 p.m. Phone 403342-0035.
● Herbal Medicine For Balance — a seminar for women of all ages — with herbalist Abrah
Arneson Cht RH will be at the Snell Auditorium at

Red Deer Public Library Downtown Branch on Jan.
29, 6:30 to 8 p.m. The cost is $25 with all proceeds
to Central Alberta Central Women’s Emergency
Shelter. Explore the relationship between well being and hormonal cycles and more. See www.abraherbs.com or phone 403-352-2820 to register.

Thursday
● Red Deer Public Schools Community Programs has openings in their upcoming courses
in Your Will on Jan. 30 and Gluten Free Cooking
on Feb. 1 and 8. For costs and registration phone
403-342-1059 online at communityprograms.rdpsd.
ab.ca
● Cultural Cafe celebrates Chinese New
Year on Jan. 30 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the
Hub on Ross. Enjoy contemporary and traditional
Chinese folk music and a presentation on Chinese
New Year, and more. Sponsored by Central Alberta
Refugee Effort. Phone 403-346-8818 or see www.
immigrant-centre.ca. Free.
● Golden Circle Senior Resource Centre
dance, Thursday, Jan. 30, 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the
seniors’ centre. Dance to the music of Country Express Band. Admission is $7. Phone 403-347-6165,
403-986-7170, or 403-246-3896.

REGISTRATIONS
LOCAL EVENTS AND ORGANIZATIONS

Contributed photo

Join Red Deer Artist Brian McArthur for an engaging presentation on
the places he has been and the competitive nature of snow sculpting
in Canada. The presentation takes place at the Red Deer Museum and
Art Gallery at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The presentation is included with
admission to the museum or with a MAG membership.

CALENDAR
THE NEXT SEVEN DAYS

Friday
● Red Deer Justice Film Festival will be held
at Margaret Parsons Theatre, Red Deer College,
Jan. 24 to 26. To find out the full list of documentary films and speakers, see www.justicefilmfestival.
ca. Admission is free. Sponsors welcome. Contact
Karen Horsley, Hearts of Women, khorsley@gmail.
com.
● St. Francis of Assisi Middle School present the play Once Upon a Mattress on Jan. 24
and 25 at Red Deer Memorial Centre. Doors open
at 6:45 p.m. and the show starts at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are available at the school office or the door
for $7 per person or $20 per family of four. Phone
403-314-1449.
● Health Equipment Loan Program (HELP)
sponsored by the Canadian Red Cross lends health
equipment to the public. As well, volunteer opportunities are available for individuals providing customer service, assisting with data entry, organization
and inventory control. Donations are also welcome.
Call Yvonne at 403-346-1241 or email yvonne.
bauer@redcross.ca, if you wish to volunteer, or to
inquire about donations, or use equipment.

Saturday
● Children’s Chess Club is offered on Jan.
25, Feb. 8 and 22, from 2 to 3 p.m. in the children’s
department at Red Deer Public Library Downtown
Branch. Children ages eight years and up, from beginners to experienced players are invited. Phone
403-346-4688.
● Happy 100th Birthday Red Deer Public
Library! On Jan. 25 Puppet Family Storytime at
Dawe Branch presents Isn’t it Great to Have a Crazy Birthday Party? from 1 to 2 p.m. Family Rainbow
Storytime will celebrate the library’s birthday from
11 a.m. to noon, in the Children’s Department at
the downtown branch. Caleb Cameron, children’s
entertainer, will perform, and cake will be served at
both branches. A new children’s library card, featuring Rainbow Reader will be offered and those who
get the new card are eligible to win Apple iPad Mini.
● MAGnificent Saturdays offer free art making with a professional artist from 1 to 4 p.m. at the
Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery in downtown
Red Deer. The Jan. 25 session is called Space, the
Final Frontier with artist Carlene La Rue. All materials supplied. Families welcome. Phone 403-3098405. Free with admission.
● Alzheimer Society presents East Coast
Meets West Kitchen Party Fundraiser on Jan.
25. The party will celebrate the co-mingling of the
East Coast and Alberta culture with tasty bites
of both regions, a live auction, and singing and
dancing music by Celtic band Chris Greve and
Claymore. Limited tickets are $100 each from the
Alzheimer Society, 403-342-0448.
● Spruce View Lions Annual Old-time Fiddle
Jamboree and Dance will be held on

Jan. 25 at Spruce View Community Hall. Happy
Hour and Beef on a bun supper at 5:30 p.m. Fiddlers perform from 7 to 9 p.m. with dance to follow.
Piano accompaniment provided. Adults cost $20.
Fiddlers and preschoolers free. Net proceeds to
Women’s Shelter and The Lending Cupboard. Fiddlers are asked to preregister. Door prizes. Contact
Darwin at 403-986-2004 or Neil at 403-728-3798.
● Random Snowshoeing at Kerry Wood
Nature Centre is available on Jan. 25 from 1 to 4
p.m. Drop in and give it a try, weather and snowlevels permitting. No high heels, please. Admission
by suggested donation of $3 per person or $10 per
family. Call 403-346-2010.

Sunday
● Juggling: The Art of Competitive Snow
Sculpting will be presented on Jan. 26, 2 to 3:30
p.m. at Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery. Brian
McArthur, artist and competitive snow sculptor, will
present highlights from the many competitions he
has participated in throughout the world. See www.
reddeermuseum.com.

Monday
● Red Deer River Naturalists — Monday
Bird Focus meets Monday at noon at the Kerry
Wood Nature Centre to depart on excursions in
central Alberta. Check out the birds in the Bigelow
area on Jan. 27. Come prepared for a full afternoon
of birding. Bring along lunch, snacks, coffee, and
dress for the weather. Be prepared to carpool. To
join in, contact Judy at 403-342-4150.
● Monday Melodies at Kerry Wood Nature
Centre will be on Jan. 27, 1 to 2:30 p.m. Seniors
invited to drop in and celebrate nature inspired music and more. Phone 403-346-2010.
● Chess Club at Red Deer Public Library
Dawe Branch welcomes all levels of players from
beginner to intermediate to learn chess rules and
strategies on Mondays from 5 to 7 p.m. Co-sponsored by Alberta Chess Association. Phone 403341-3822.
● Innisfail and District Garden Club meets
the fourth Monday of each month from Jan. to Nov.
at 7 p.m. in St. Mark’s Anglican Church Hall. Please
use the back door. Meetings feature speakers,
tours, films, contests, plant exchanges and more.
Call Davina at 403-598-9481.

Tuesday
● Teens are invited to Be a Kid Again on Jan.
28 from 4 to 5 p.m. and enjoy childhood games
such as bubble painting, play dough, three-legged
races, pillow-case races, Candyland, double dutch,
hula hooping, and more at Waskasoo Kiwanis
Meeting Room at Red Deer Public Library downtown.

● Characters from the Past Dessert Theatre
will be presented by Alix Wagon Wheel Museum
and Boomtown Trail on Feb. 1, 7 p.m. at Alix Community Hall. See Gabriel Dumont, Mrs. Bashaw,
Barbara Cormack. Tickets are $15 in advance from
Alix Home Hardware and from museum members,
or $20 at the door.
● Reading Tails is a six-week program for
children ages six to 12 who would like to practice
reading skills with a trained therapy dog. For more
information or to register contact 403-346-4688
or email lgrimes@rdpl.org. Registrations are now
open for winter.
● All Aboard for Storytime Tours at Red
Deer Public Library may be customized for playschools, daycares, clubs, and school classes. Contact the Children’s Department at the downtown
branch at 403-346-4688, or the Dawe Branch Library at 403-341-3822 to find out details.
● Toy Lending Library is open at the downtown branch of the Red Deer Public Library. A current library card is needed to borrow toys, games
and puzzles for up to three weeks. Call Children’s
Services at 403-346-4688.
● Emotional Intelligence in Children will
be offered on Feb. 10, 7 to 8:15 p.m. in the Snell
Auditorium of Red Deer Public Library Downtown
Branch. Registered Psychologist Chantel Walker
will discuss ways to enhance and use emotional intelligence to support young learners. Co-sponsored
by Learning Disabilities Association of Alberta and
free for members, or $15 for non-members. Phone
403-340-3885.
● Fireside Readers book club will meet on
Feb. 19 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Red Deer Public
Library Downtown Branch in Waskasoo Kiwanis
Meeting Room. For discussion will be February by
Lisa Moore. Phone 403-342-9110. See the blog at
http://firesidereaders.rdpl.org/. If you can’t attend
meetings, read along and post your comments.
● Red Deer Public Library is seeking enthusiastic high school students to volunteer as Reading
Pals with elementary school students in Grades 1
to 6 who are struggling with reading and/or writing.
High school students will work with one or two students two days a week for a three week period. To
find out more contact Lucinda at 403-309-3488.
● Adult Literacy Program is available at Red
Deer Public Library Dawe Branch. Volunteers are
recruited and trained to work one-on-one with
adults seeking help with basic literacy, math or
English as a Second Language. For details, contact 403-346-3822 or adultlit@rdpl.org.
● Red Deer Youth Justice Committee is actively seeking volunteers. Applications for membership may be picked up at Community Corrections,
Room 103 at the Provincial Building.
● Lincoln Hall Society presents SadlleSores
featuring Richard and Deborah Popovich, Feb.
14 at Lincoln Hall. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Supper
catered by Bob Ronnie at 6:30 p.m. Show at 8 p.m.
Cost is $45.
● Rimbey Annual Women’s Conference will
be held on Feb. 13 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at
the Rimbey Community Centre. Keynote speakers
are George Boelcke and Bob Layton and there
will be six concurrent sessions, catered lunch,
vendors, prizes and more. Registration fee is $35
before Feb. 6 and $40 after. Register at Family and
Community Support Services in the Rimbey. Call
403-843-2030.
● Canadian Mental Association Indoor Cy-

cling Wellness Day sponsored by Berry Architecture and Associates will be held on Feb. 1. Two
former professional cyclists, Alex Stieda and Tyler
Hamilton, will lead four spin bike clinics throughout
the day at the Collicutt Centre. A $250 donation to
CMHA purchases a spot in the spin bike clinic and
a dinner ticket to the fundraising gala at Red Deer
Sheraton Hotel from 6 to 9 p.m. Gala tickets are
$50. Contact ride@berryarchitecture.ca to register
and for information.
● Red Deer College Music Concert Series
presents Faculty Jazz Concert on Feb. 1, 7:30
p.m. in Studio A, RDC Arts Centre. Take in a history of rock from Elvis and the Beatles to funk and
fusion. Tickets available through Black Knight Tickets, phone, 403-755-6626, go online to www.bkticketcentre.ca, or in person at the Black Knight Inn.
● Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High
School Class of 1964 Fiftieth Year Reunion
takes place on June 21, 2014, 3 p.m. Contact Pete
Weddell at 403-340-1467, or cel 403-505-6476,
5619 47A Ave. Red Deer, Alta. T4N 3S1, or Gail
(Horn) Krause at 403-342-7554, or cel 403-3509122.
● Canadian Blood Services has an urgent
need for blood donations due to cancellations due
to bad weather. Donate blood, save lives. Visit
www.blood.ca or call 1-888-2-DONATE (1-888236-6283) to make an appointment, or for eligibility
information.
● All You Need is Love — Beatles tribute
band — is appearing at Innisfail Super 8 Hotel in
Innisfail on Feb. 14. Tickets are $50 in advance
from the hotel front desk, or call 403-227-6660.
Sponsored by Central Alberta Presenters Society,
a non-profit dedicated to bringing quality entertainment to Central Alberta at reasonable prices.
● Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High
School presents Disney’s Beauty and the Beast
at Red Deer Memorial Centre, Jan. 31, Feb. 1, 6,
and 7 at 7:30 p.m., and at 2 p.m. on Feb. 2. Call
403-342-1059 for tickets.
● Sheraton Celebrity Dance-Off Gala in support of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Red Deer will be
held on April 4. Local celebrities have been paired
with professional dance instructors to compete for
the honour of best ballroom dancer. Tickets for the
gala, including dance with live band to follow the
competition will be on sale to the general public
starting Jan. 27 at 10 a.m. and will continue to Jan.
28 at www.bbbsreddeer.ca under the Celebrity
Dance Off link or at Youth and Volunteer Centre or
at 403-348-8503. Tickets sell out quickly.
● Support Stephen Lewis Foundation
Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign with
donations of Aeroplan Miles. Chris Hume — a local member of Gramma-Link Africa — has been
selected as one of 20 Canadian grandmothers
to go on an educational trip to sub-Sahara Africa
organized by the Foundation on March 1 to 17.
To donate Aeroplan Miles to help Chris, search
Stephen Lewis Foundation/ways to give and follow
links, and then contact Chris at 403-347-2776 to tell
her about your donation.
● Annual Show Us Your Heart Fundraiser
at Global Pet Foods in Red Deer will run from Feb.
1 to 15 and will support Whisker Rescue no-kill cat
adoption organization. Donations for Whisker Rescue will be accepted at both the north and south
locations and Global Pet Foods and Hill’s Science
Diet will match the first dollar of each donation
make in store.

Pencil cactus makes a nice
houseplant or living fence
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pencil cactus is a fitting common
name for Euphorbia tirucalli, even
though the plant would be useless for
writing and is not really a cactus.
A single plant looks like many slender, green pencils, each stuck on the
end or growing off the side of the one
before it. A couple of small, elongated leaves perch inconspicuously and
briefly at the end of the “pencils,” relegating photosynthesis to the succulent, green stems.
Lack of thorns is one indication that
this plant is no cactus. Even more telling is the milky sap that oozes from
broken or cut stems. That sap and the
plant’s flowers — not very showy and
rarely appearing indoors — put pencil cactus in the spurge family, along
with more familiar houseplants such
as poinsettia and crown-of-thorns.
On the positive side, the sap has
been used in its native Africa as folk
medicine, and to repel mosquitoes and
kill rats. It’s also a potential source of
latex rubber and oil — 10 to 50 barrels
of oil per acre by one reckoning. On
the negative side, the sap has been implicated as a potential carcinogen and,
if it gets in the eyes, is said to cause
temporary blindness. At the very least,
it is somewhat toxic and irritates skin.
MAKING NEW PLANTS
All that is necessary to get a pencil

cactus started is to snap a few stems,
each 2 or 3 inches long, from an existing plant (again, avoiding touching the
sap). My pencil cactus cuttings came
from a living fence I happened upon
during a recent visit to Florida.
There was no need to keep those
cuttings moist until I returned home
because this plant, like all succulents,
roots best if its cut ends are allowed to
callous over in dry air before being put
in soil. So it wasn’t until I brought my
cuttings home that I stuck them into
pots of soil, watered them, and then
waited each time until the soil was
thoroughly dry before watering again.
GROWING THIS PENCIL
Where winters are too cold to grow
pencil cactus outdoors, it makes a nice
houseplant (keeping in mind the cautions about the sap). As a succulent,
the plant loves light but otherwise tolerates the threats facing most houseplants: dry air and forgetful watering.
If in doubt about whether or not to water this plant, don’t. It won’t die from
under-watering. Taper off or completely avoid watering in winter. Extra perlite added to any potting mix further
ensures that the mix drains well and
stays on the dry side.
One variety that’s particularly attractive indoors or out is “Sticks on
Fire.” Its “pencils” are reddish yellow,
the red becoming more prominent in
cooler weather.

Grow, harvest and brew your own tea
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
When temperatures fall, there’s nothing better
than a piping hot cup of tea.
And as craft and organic tea seeps into the mainstream, tea gardens are becoming a popular way for
brew lovers to bypass the store and enjoy the benefits of herbal tea without additives or preservatives.
“It just tastes and smells better,” says chef Kimmy
Tang, who snips mint, lavender and lemongrass from
her garden for herbal teas at her 9021PHO restaurants in Los Angeles.
“I also know that it’s 100 per cent organic. I don’t
use any chemicals to help them grow, and I can taste
the difference.”
It may sound daunting, but British gardener and
author Cassie Liversidge says many tea garden staples may already be at your fingertips.
“Honeysuckle, mint, rosemary. They’re all quite
common plants, but can be turned into tea,” says Liversidge, author of the forthcoming book Homegrown
Photo by ADVOCATE news services
Tea: An Illustrated Guide to Planting, Harvesting and
Blending Teas and Tisanes (St. Martin’s Griffin, March Once you’ve mastered the basics, take a stab at other popular tea ingredients such as coriander, lemon balm,
2014).
rose hips (above), hibiscus and jasmine.
She and other tea gardeners offer the following
tips to get your feet wet:
Here is a recipe for a Vitamin C “power blend”
2 parts lemon balm
GROWING
tea from the forthcoming Medicinal Gardening Hand1 part dandelion blossoms
First and foremost, no sprawling English estate is book (Skyhorse Publishing, May 2014) by Vermont
½ part rosebuds
required here.
gardeners and neighbours Alyssa Holmes and Dede
Pour into a quart jar and fill with boiling water.
Tea gardens come in many forms, and don’t even Cummings:
Cover and let steep for at least 15 minutes or up to
need to be in the ground. Tang grows her herbs
1 part rose hips
eight hours. Strain before drinking.
in a vertical garden hanging on a wall behind her
1 part hibiscus
restaurants, while other
city dwellers cramped for
space use pots and other
containers.
All you need is dirt,
water and some seeds.
“A great way to get
started is to buy a plastic indoor sun garden at
Lowe’s or Home Depot,
along with the seeds and
pieces of dirt that expand
with water,” says McCollonough Ceili, a 26-yearold author who grows
lavender, sage, mint and
other herbs outside her
kitchen window in Tennessee.
Liversidge recommends easy-to-grow
plants like mint, lavender
or chamomile for beginners.
If you’ve already got
those growing, take a stab
at other popular tea ingredients like coriander,
lemon balm, rose hips, hibiscus and jasmine.
Keep the plants in an
area that gets at least six
hours of sunlight each
day, rotate them often
and monitor moisture per
directions on the seed
packet.
HARVESTING
/DRYING
Each plant is unique
when it comes to harvesting.
The flower tops are
the most medicinal part
of the rosemary plant, for
example, so be sure to
clip those off along with
the leaves for tea, Liver†*
sidge says.
Fennel is valued for its
seeds, and those must be
shaken out from the flowers once they turn brown.
Snip flowers like chamomile at the base of their
†
stems, not the top, so you
^
**
can use the stems, leaves
and petals in your brew,
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Many herbs can be
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“With my lemongrass,
I cut it and freeze it to
keep the nutrients locked
in,” says Tang.
No matter the method,
be sure to store your tea
ingredients in airtight
containers.
BREWING
There are a few ways
to brew your homemade
tea, depending on the ingredients and personal
preference.
Hershey, Pa.-based
writer and photographer
Amy Renea prefers to
“chop off big hunks” of
fresh mint, lemon balm,
chamomile and sometimes stevia from her
tea garden and put them
right in the tea kettle.
Once it’s reached boilALL-TERRAIN
ing, pull the kettle off the
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ON NOW AT YOUR ALBERTA GMC DEALERS. AlbertaGMC.com 1-800-GM-DRIVE. GMC is a brand of General Motors of Canada. * Offers apply to the lease of a new or demonstrator 2014 GMC Sierra 1500 Double Cab 4x4 (1SA/G80/B30/K05). Freight ($1,650) and PDI included. License, insurance,
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registration, PPSA, administration fees and taxes not included. Dealers are free to set individual prices. Offers apply to qualiﬁed retail customers in Alberta GMC Dealer Marketing Association area only. Dealer order or trade may be required. †* The Automotive Journalists Association of Canada
(AJAC) comprises professional journalists, photographers specializing in cars and trucks. They provide unbiased opinions of new vehicles to help consumers make better purchases that are right for them. For more information visit www.ajac.ca. ^ 2014 Sierra 1500 with the available 5.3L EcoTec3
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V8 engine equipped with a 6-speed automatic transmission has a fuel-consumption rating of 13.0L/100 km city and 8.7L/100 km hwy 2WD and 13.3L/100 km city and 9.0L/100 km hwy 4WD. Fuel consumption based on GM testing in accordance with approved Transport Canada test methods. Your
actual fuel consumption may vary. Competitive fuel consumption ratings based on Natural Resources Canada’s 2013 Fuel Consumption Guide for WardsAuto.com 2013 Large Pickup segment and latest available information at the time of posting. **When equipped with available 6.2L EcoTec3 V8
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2-Year Scheduled Lube-Oil-Filter Maintenance Program provides eligible customers in Canada, who have purchased, leased or ﬁnanced a new eligible 2014 MY Sierra with an ACDelco oil and ﬁlter change, in accordance with the oil life monitoring system and the Owner’s Manual, for 2 years or 40,000
For the freshest tea
KMs, whichever occurs ﬁrst, with a limit of four (4) Lube-Oil-Filter services in total, performed at participating GM Dealers. Fluid top offs, inspections, tire rotations, wheel alignments and balancing, etc. are not covered. This offer may not be redeemed for cash and may not be combined with certain
other consumer incentives available on GM vehicles. General Motors of Canada Limited reserves the right to amend or terminate this offer, in whole or in part, at any time without prior notice. Additional conditions and limitations apply. See dealer for details. + Whichever comes ﬁrst. See dealer for
possible, she advises
conditions and limited warranty details. ‡ 2.5% Lease APR available for 48 months on a new or demonstrator 2014 GMC Sierra 1500 Double Cab 4x4 1SA, O.A.C by GM Financial. Annual kilometre limit of 20,000 km, $0.16 per excess kilometre. Down payment or trade and/or security deposit may be
required. Bi-weekly payments may vary depending on down payment/trade. Offer may not be combined with certain other consumer incentives. ¥ $3,500/$4,000 manufacturer to dealer delivery credit has been applied to the purchase, ﬁnance and lease offers of 2014 Sierra 1500 Double Cab 4x4
pouring fresh water in(with SLE Premium Package)/Sierra 1500 Double Cab 4x4, and is applicable to retail customers only. Other credits available on select Sierra models. Offer ends January 31, 2014. ¥¥ $1,000 manufacturer to dealer lease cash available on 2014 Sierra 1500 Double Cab. Other cash credits available on
to your tea kettle every
most models. See your GM dealer for details. Offer ends January 31, 2014. ‡‡ Offer only valid from January 3, 2014 – February 28, 2014 (the “Program Period”) to retail customers resident in Canada who own or are currently leasing (during the Program Period) a GM or competitor pickup truck to
receive a $1,000 credit towards the purchase, ﬁnance or lease of an eligible new 2013 or 2014 Model Year Chevrolet Silverado Light Duty, Silverado Heavy Duty, Sierra Light Duty, Sierra Heavy Duty, or 2013 Avalanche. Only one (1) credit may be applied per eligible vehicle sale. Offer is transferable to a
time. It has more oxygen,
family member living in the same household (proof of address required). This offer may not be redeemed for cash and may not be combined with certain other consumer incentives available on GM vehicles. The $1,000 credit includes HST/GST/PST as applicable by province. As part of the transaction,
dealer will request current vehicle registration and/or insurance to prove ownership. GMCL reserves the right to amend or terminate this offer, in whole or in part, at any time without prior notice. Void where prohibited by law. Additional conditions and limitations apply. See your GM dealer for details.
which will bring out the
++ Offer valid only to eligible retail lessees in Canada who have obtained credit approval by GM Financial, have entered into a lease agreement with GM Financial, and who accept delivery from January 3, 2014 through February 28, 2014 of a new eligible 2014 model. General Motors of Canada will
pay the ﬁrst month’s lease payment, or ﬁrst 2 bi-weekly lease payments (inclusive of taxes). After the ﬁrst month, lessee will be required to make all remaining scheduled payments over the remaining term of the lease agreement. This offer may not be redeemed for cash and may not be combined
tea’s flavour.
with certain other consumer incentives available on GM vehicles. General Motors of Canada Limited reserves the right to amend or terminate this offer, in whole or in part, at any time without prior notice. Void where prohibited by law. Additional conditions and limitations apply. See dealer for details.

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SPORTS

B5

THURSDAY, JAN. 23, 2014

Rebels blank Raiders
BIG WIN IN BATTLE
FOR PLAYOFF SPOT
BY ADVOCATE STAFF
Rebels 5 Raiders 0
PRINCE ALBERT — Every game is important for the Red Deer Rebels as they battle for
a playoff berth in the WHL’s Eastern Conference.
But none more so than Tuesday’s meeting
with the Prince Albert Raiders.
The Rebels went into the game in eighth
place in the conference and just two points up
on the Raiders.
They came out of their last regular season
meeting with the Raiders four points up following a 5-0 victory.
“It was a big win coming in here as we’re
fighting them for a playoff spot,” said Rebels
head coach/GM Brent Sutter.
“We knew they would be hungry after losing
their last three games and we responded.”
After a scoreless opening period the Rebels grabbed a 3-0 lead in the middle stanza on
goals by Rhyse Dieno, Cole Chorney and Aspen
Sterzer.
“We got some key goals in the second period
on rushes after the play was in our zone,” said
Sutter. “As well our young kids did a great job
of cycling the puck and scored (by Chorney) off
the cycle.”
Presten Kopeck and Lucas Sutter put the
game away with third-period goals, 30 seconds
apart.
“We scored some timely goals, plus our goaltender played really well,” added Sutter.

Patrik Bartosak notched his fourth shutout
of the season and the 10th of his career, finishing with 38 saves. He was especially sharp on
the penalty kill.
“We took eight minor penalties and he was
our best penalty killer,” continued Sutter. “We
took a few penalties we shouldn’t have, which
we don’t want to continue to do, but it happens.”
The Rebels also were closer to having their
roster intact with only Vukie Mpofu and Wyatt
Johnson sidelined.
“Getting everyone back allows me to do
some things as a coach,” said Sutter. “If someone isn’t playing as well as they should we can
make changes and still get the competition we
want.
“That was one of the reasons we made the
trades for Kopeck and Sterzer.”
Both newcomers have played well and continue to contribute to the offence, both finishing with a goal and an assist.
“They give us more quickness and speed up
front which is what we were looking for when
we got them.”
The win moved the Rebels to within two
points of the seventh-place Kootenay Ice and
three behind the Regina Pats, who they visit
Saturday.
They have a game in hand on Kootenay and
two on Regina.
“It moves us closer to the pack, which is
what we want,” concluded Sutter.
The Rebels are in Saskatoon Friday.
drode@reddeeradvocate.com

Calgary 3 Phoenix 2
CALGARY — Sean Monahan continued his impressive
rookie season Wednesday scoring his team-leading 14th
goal as the Calgary Flames snapped their record sevengame home losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes.
Monahan opened the scoring at 11:44 of the first period. It was the first time in nine home games Calgary had
struck first. In fact, the Flames hadn’t held the lead in a
home game going back to Dec. 12, the day general manager Jay Feaster was fired.
The goal was set up by a TJ Galiardi’s hustle.
After winning a race to the puck deep in the Coyotes
zone, Galiardi promptly zipped the puck in front where
Monahan tapped it in behind goaltender Mike Smith, firing up the sell-out crowd of 19,289.
The goal moves Monahan, 19, ahead of Mike Cammalleri and Jiri Hudler into the team lead in goals.

Please see FLAMES on Page B6

AUSTRALIAN OPEN

SPEEDSKATING

Li Na beats
Bouchard

Wotherspoon-Gregg
named to Sochi team
BY DONNA SPENCER
THE CANADIAN PRESS

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MELBOURNE, Australia — Li Na has her third
and probably best chance to win the Australian
Open final after advancing with a 6-2, 6-4 win over
19-year-old Canadian Eugenie Bouchard.
No. 4-seeded Li, the 2011 French Open champion,
is the only major winner and the highest-ranked
player still in contention after the fourth-round upsets of Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova and
defending champion Victoria Azarenka’s quarterfinal loss to Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.
No. 5-seeded Radwanska was playing Dominika
Cibulkova in the second semifinal later Thursday.
Li lost last year’s Australian Open final to Azarenka, after falling over and hitting her head twice
on the court.
She lost the 2011 decider to Kim Clijsters, her first
appearance in a Grand Slam final, and recovered
from that loss to win her one and only major at Roland Garros.
“Last time was a little bit tough. I will try this time
to make one more step,” Li said. “Tough match of
course in the final. I think for sure both will try fight
on the court because it’s one more step to take the
trophy.”
Li considered quitting the tour after the French
Open last year, when she was beaten in the second
round and was struggling with the off-court pressure. After reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon,
the Chinese star opted against retiring and then
reached the U.S. Open semifinals. Li, who turns 32
next month, has gone another step further in Australia.
After saving a match point in the third round
against Lucie Safarova, she has started all her
matches aggressively.

Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS

Eugenie Bouchard makes a backhand return to Li
Na of China during their semifinal at the Australian
Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia,
Thursday. Li Na won 6-2, 6-4.
It worked against Bouchard, who didn’t win a
point in her first three service games in a nervous
start. In the second set, the pair exchanged four service breaks in the first six games before Li finally
took charge.
Fittingly, Li finished off the match with a backhand crosscourt, one of 16 backhand winners in the
match and her biggest weapon against Bouchard.

CALGARY — Canada’s long-track speedskating
team heads to Sochi lacking the dominant athletes it
had at previous Winter Olympics.
The speedskating oval has been fertile medal
ground for Canada with five won in Vancouver in
2010 and eight in Turin, Italy, in 2006.
“Two to three medals” is the modest goal for the
17 athletes introduced Wednesday at the Olympic
Oval in Calgary. And that may be ambitious given the
top medal contenders haven’t consistently stood on
the international podium this season.
Multi-medallists Clara Hughes and Kristina
Groves retired after 2010. Cindy Klassen, winner of
a record five medals by herself in 2006, did not compete this winter because of a concussion.
Jeremy Wotherspoon was a dominant sprinter at
World Cups and world championships although he
won a single silver at his four Olympic Games. He
came out of retirement to race at Olympic trials earlier this month, but his comeback fell short.
So the 2014 long-track team includes 10 athletes
who will make their Olympic debuts in Russia, including Jeremy’s sister and Red Deer native Danielle Wotherspoon-Gregg.
“We don’t have Cindy or Kristina or Clara, the
people who are guaranteed medals anymore,” Edmonton sprinter Jamie Gregg said. “The expectations should be fairly low for the team as far as
medal counts go.
“That being said, when expectations are low that’s
when really special things can happen . . . maybe
some breakout performances that are not necessarily expected.”

SPEEDSKATING: Longshots
Christine Nesbitt of London, Ont., is the defending Olympic
champion in the women’s 1,000 metres, but has struggled with
her racing form and confidence.
She finished outside the top 10 in her two World Cup events
in November.
Nesbitt was fifth in the world sprint championships in Nagano, Japan, last week. She was en route to Europe and did not
attend Wednesday’s event in Calgary.
Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., Regina’s Lucas Makowsky and Mathieu Giroux of Pointe-aux-Trembles, Que., are
the reigning Olympic champions in the men’s pursuit, although
they too have yet to stand on an international podium this winter.
Morrison pointed out they were longshots heading into Vancouver and plan to play the underdog card again.
“People discount us,” he said. “The last few weeks we’ve
been working together a lot and I think we might surprise a few
people.”
The 28-year-old was a consistent medal producer for Canada
until breaking his left leg during the 2012-13 season.
Morrison fell in the 1,000 metres at the Olympic trials this
month, but qualified for his third Winter Olympics in the 1,500.
Morrison is a former world record holder in the distance.
“I’m just happy to be on this team and have made it,” he said.
“Coming back from a broken leg makes me an underdog.”
Gregg and Gilmore Junio of Calgary are contenders in the
men’s 500 as both have won World Cup medals this winter. Junio
tied for first at a World Cup in Salt Lake City in November.
The women’s pursuit team of Nesbitt, Ottawa’s Ivanie Blondin and Winnipeg’s Brittany Schussler also have a shot at the
podium in Sochi.
Regina’s Kali Christ, Marsha Hudey of White City, Sask., Calgary’s Kaylin Irvine, Brianne Tutt of Airdrie, Vincent De Haitre
of Cumberland, Ont., William Dutton of Humboldt, Sask., and
Ouardi Muncef of Quebec City round out the Olympic team.
The Olympic speedskating schedule starts Feb. 8 with the
men’s 5,000 metres and concludes Feb. 22 with the men’s and
women’s pursuit.

TENNIS: Only second Canadian
to reach major semifinal
The Canadian teenager was playing only her fourth Grand
Slam tournament, and became just the second player from her
country to reach a major semifinal.
“I think maybe she will be best player in the world. But today
(I’m) so lucky,” Li said. Bouchard attracted a big cheering section in Australia, with the group swelling in numbers after her
first match on Court 15 and calling itself the “Genie Army.”
Li jokingly apologized to the Genie Army after the match, undoubtedly increasing her own huge support base at Melbourne
Park.
“Sorry about that,” she said. “If you guys be happy, I will go
home.”

FLAMES: Five-game homestand
The sixth overall pick from last June’s NHL Draft is third in
rookie goals behind Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon (17) and San
Jose’s Tomas Hertl (15).
Calgary never relinquished that lead thanks partly to Karri
Ramo, who was especially sharp in the opening 20 minutes
when Phoenix outshot the Flames 11-6 but trailed 1-0.
Lance Bouma and Matt Stajan also scored for Calgary (17-277), which scored more than two goals for just the second time in
14 games since Christmas.
The Flames had been outscored 22-4 during its seven-game
home losing streak.
Kicking off a five-game homestand, Calgary will try to make it
two wins in a row Friday night against Nashville.
Antoine Vermette and Shane Doan scored for Phoenix (23-189), which has lost eight of its last 11.
The Coyotes remain four points behind the Minnesota Wild
for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
Winless in its last five games away from home, Phoenix’s
three-game road trip to Western Canada continues Friday night
in Edmonton.
The Flames surged in front 2-0 at 8:48 of the second period
on a perfectly executed fast break. Curling out from behind his
own net, TJ Brodie threaded a long pass to Bouma at the Phoenix blue-line. In behind the Coyotes defence, Bouma darted in
and snapped a perfect shot into the top corner.
Vermette cut the lead to 2-1 on a short-handed goal less than
five minutes later, beating Ramo on a sizzling one-timer just inside the goal post after a set-up from Lauri Korpiskoski.
However, the Flames restored its two-goal cushion before the
period ended when Stajan, fresh off signing a four-year contract
extension two days ago, stepped into a slapshot and blasted a
40-footer past Smith.
Phoenix got back to within one when Doan snapped a shot
past Ramo 6:50 into the third period but despite a couple dangerous chances in the waning seconds after pulling Smith for an
extra attacker, they could not tie it.
Ramo finished with 30 stops to improve to 9-10-4.
Smith, who had 23 saves, falls to 17-15-8.
Notes: Flames LW Mike Cammalleri (concussion) missed his
sixth game. Also not dressed for Calgary was LW Paul Byron
(foot)... Missing for Phoenix was C Martin Hanzal (lower body),
who missed his second game and D David Schlemko (upper
body). Both are day-to-day... Calgary’s only two regulation wins
in the last 21 home games have come against the Coyotes. They
also beat Phoenix 4-1 on Dec. 4... After 48 games without one,
the Coyotes have shorthanded goals in two consecutive games...
With Henrik Sedin’s streak ending, Vermette (361) and D Keith
Yandle (353) now have the third and fourth longest active ironman streaks in the NHL.

Woman arrested after hockey player boyfriend threatened
BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
KENNEWICK, Wash. — A
freelance reporter from British Columbia has been arrested in the United States over
allegations she threatened to
kill her boyfriend, who is a junior hockey player for the TriCity Americans.
Court documents indicate
25-year-old Kelowna resident
Tieja MacLaughlin, who police said had been dating TriCity Americans player Jackson Playfair, was arrested in
Kennewick, Wash.
None of the allegations contained in court documents or
outlined publicly by Kennewick police have been tested
in court, and she has not been
charged. She appeared in
court Tuesday and was held
without bail, according to the
documents.
According to a court docu-

ment outlining the reason
for MacLaughlin’s detention,
Playfair called police early
Saturday morning.
He told police he had been
in a relationship with MacLaughlin since last July, but
the relationship had been
“rocky,” the document said.
“Tieja found out the victim cheated on her and she
told him over the phone that
she was on her way to Kennewick,” the arresting officer
wrote on the document.
“During that phone call,
Tieja advised the victim that
he would be dead by the end
of the night.”
The document said MacLaughlin denied making the
threats after her arrest on Saturday.
MacLaughlin was assigned
a public defender. Eric Hsu,
the public defence manager
for the Benton and Franklin
Counties Office of Public De-

fense, confirmed MacLaughlin
was being held in custody but
otherwise declined to comment.
The victim in the document
is identified only as a player
for the Tri-City Americans, but
Kennewick police spokesman
Mike Blatman confirmed Playfair’s identity.
Playfair is originally from
Fort St. James, B.C., according
to biographical information on
the team’s website. He is the
son of Phoenix Coyotes associate coach Jim Playfair, and his
brother, Austyn Playfair, was
signed to the Americans last
year.
A spokesperson for the TriCity Americans said neither
Playfair nor the team would
be commenting.
MacLaughlin is a freelance
reporter for Castanet, an online news website based in
Kelowna, and has also written
for the Kelowna Daily Courier.

Two addresses are listed for
her in court documents, one
in Kelowna and one in Paris,
Ont.
Blatman said MacLaughlin
had travelled to Kennewick
from Paris.
“She got here and apparently there was some sort of a
falling out between the two of
them, where she became upset that he might have been
involved in some other relationship,” Blatman said in an
interview.
Blatman said MacLaughlin
ended up staying in a hotel
room for the night, but continued to contact Playfair,
prompting him to call police.
He said officers contacted
MacLaughlin and she agreed
to leave Playfair alone.
“She agreed to do that, said
she wouldn’t make any contact
with him or anything else,”
Blatman said.
“Between that time and

the next morning, there were
a substantial number of text
messages she continued to
send Playfair.”
Blatman said MacLaughlin
was arrested Saturday. She
can be held without charge for
up to 72 hours after her Tuesday court appearance.
A profile for MacLaughlin
on the social networking site
LinkedIn says she is a reporter for Castanet and the Kelowna Daily Courier. Stories with
her byline have appeared in
both publications, as recently
as this month.
A Twitter account that appears to be maintained by MacLaughlin suggests she may
have crossed the border into
the United States last Friday.
“If I had a dollar for every
time a U.S. customs officer
chirped my truck, I’d be able
to buy a new truck,” says a
tweet from the user (at)Tieja—
Mac.

RED DEER ADVOCATE Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014 B7

DeRozan rallies Raptors
CAREER-HIGH 40 POINTS NABS VICTORY OVER MAVERICKS
BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — With teammate
Kyle Lowry ailing, DeMar DeRozan put the Toronto Raptors on
his shoulders Wednesday night.
DeRozan had a career-high 40
points to rally the Raptors to a
93-85 home win over the Dallas
Mavericks, their first victory in
three games.
And with fellow guard Lowry
struggling with the stomach flu
— he went 0-for-10 from the field,
including 0-for-6 from beyond the
arc — it was DeRozan who led Toronto to its third straight decision
over the Mavs.
“Once I saw Kyle with his head
hanging down and holding his
stomach, I knew he wasn’t feeling too well,” DeRozan said. “This
loss would’ve hurt and we didn’t
want to lose three in a row.
“I just told myself to try do as
much as I can to win, try to pull
this one off and keep my team in
it.”
DeRozan finished 15-of-22 from
the field, nine-of-14 from the freethrow line and hit the only threepointer he tried.
He put an exclamation point on
his outstanding performance by

recording the steal and going the
length of the court to score and
give Toronto (21-20) a 92-85 lead
with 1:48 remaining.
“He got into the flow of the
game,” Raptors coach Dwane
Casey said. “In the first quarter
we weren’t getting those flow
shots.
“After that we started getting
into our offence, we ran the pick
and rolls. They started blitzing
them and he (DeRozan) did a good
job finding others and the ball
found him. It was growth on his
part from being double-teamed
and being patient enough to
get the ball back and be able to
score.”
Although Lowry only managed
three points — off free throws
— Casey praised his guard’s contributions in other areas of the
game.
“Kyle didn’t stop playing,”
Casey said. “He dove on the floor,
go his hands in there defensively
on loose balls.
“He affected the game without scoring. You don’t expect him
to go 0-for-10 but he affected the
game.”
Grievis Vazquez scored 17
points and Jonas Valanciunas
added 12 for Toronto, which re-

bounded from a horrid start as
Dallas stormed out to a 34-15 firstquarter lead.
“After the first quarter I
thought it was going to be a blowout,” Casey said. “But in the second half we got the game back under control and got defence in the
game.
“You get in a free-flowing game
with a great offensive team like
that and you’re in trouble. Our
starts are concerning . . . but for
us to score only 15 points is alarming.”
Monta Ellis had 21 points for
Dallas (25-19) while former Raptors Jose Calderon and Vince
Carter had 13 and eight points,
respectively. Brandan Wright also
had 13 points as all-star forward
Dirk Nowitzki (rest) was inactive
despite scoring 17 points in a 10297 road win over Cleveland on
Monday night.
Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle said DeRozan was tough to
pin down.
“He was doing a little bit of everything,” he said.
“He was driving and he was
making shots.
“They got in transition a lot because of turnovers and he’s a really good transition player.”

NHLers voice concern
over security in Sochi
BY THE CANADIAN PRESS

OLYMPICS

VANCOUVER — Roberto Luongo won’t have any family joining him next month when he suits
up for Canada at the Winter Olympics.
The same goes for Sweden’s
Daniel Sedin.
The Vancouver Canucks teammates are both concerned over
security at the Games in Sochi,
Russia, after a series of threats
and terrorist attacks in the region.
Two suicide bombers killed 34
people in the southern Russian
city of Volgograd in December,
and officials say they are hunting
three more potential attackers —
including one believed to be in
Sochi.
“It’s definitely on my mind, I’m
not going to lie,” Luongo said after
practice on Wednesday. “I think
we’re all a little bit concerned.
We’re definitely going to keep an
eye on it over the next few weeks.”
Sedin, who is set to compete
for Sweden along with his twin
brother Henrik, said he was “absolutely” concerned about the
news coming out of Russia, including email threats on Wednesday against a handful of European
countries set to participate at the
Olympics.
The threats were largely dis-

missed as a hoax, but the concern
over security in Sochi is serious.
“We talk about it quite a bit.
It’s nothing you can really joke
about,” said Sedin. “It’s in the
back of your head for sure.”
Luongo, the odds on favourite
to start for Canada in its first game
Feb. 13 against Norway, and Sedin
both said safety is the main reason their families won’t be travelling to Russia.
Sedin added that if family
members wanted to join him and
his brother, he would discourage
them from making the trip.
An Islamic militant group
in Dagestan — which is located
about 500 kilometres from Sochi
— claimed responsibility for the
bombings in Volgograd in a video
posted on Sunday. The video also
contained a threat to strike the
Olympics.
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby voiced similar concerns to
those of Luongo and Sedin to reporters in Pittsburgh on Sunday.
“Obviously everybody watches
the news and knows that there’s
been things happening fairly close
to there,” said Crosby, who will
captain the Canadian team.
“From what we’ve been told,
I think they’re going to do every-

thing they can to make sure it’s
safe and secure. We’re going over
to play and focus on that.
“It’s not something everyone’s
totally worried about, but I think
it’s hard not to think about it when
things are happening kind of close
to there.”
Toronto Maple Leafs forward
James van Riemsdyk, who will suit
up for the United States in Sochi,
said back in December that American hockey officials told him that
security will be “very tight.”
“I know they mentioned things
about different actions they were
going to take as far as making sure
everything’s secure,” he said. “It
seemed like they were on top of
all that.”
Minnesota Wild defenceman
Ryan Suter, who will also play for
the Americans, said after practice
Wednesday that his wife and two
young children won’t be travelling
to Russia.
The long trip is part of the reason, but Suter said recent news
about terrorist threats made the
decision “a little bit easier.”
Another American Olympian,
Suter’s friend and Wild teammate
Zach Parise, also advised his parents and relatives not to come. He
said the situation is “nerve wracking, that’s for sure.”

Reborn Jets tie longest winning streak
this season after coaching change
BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
As far as mid-season turnarounds go, this one is starting to
look pretty good. With their longshot 3-2 win over first-place Anaheim Tuesday night, the Winnipeg
Jets have strung together four in a
row for only the second time this
NHL campaign.
They have a shot at hitting a
high-water mark of five when they
visit San Jose Thursday night to
play the Sharks, also formidable
at home with a record in their own
building of 17-2-3.
Not since November have the
Jets managed to win four in a row
in a season that has seen a fivegame losing streak cost former
coach Claude Noel his job.
But since Paul Maurice took
over Jan. 12, they haven’t lost a
game. They’ve even started talking
with straight faces about making
the playoffs once more, despite
their current last-place position
in the Central Division. Although,
with Tuesday’s win, they at least
now sit tied with Nashville.
If they were looking for another

Julia de Vos and
Gwen Tiggelaar dropped
in 16 points each to lead
the Xpress to a 67-18 victory over the Rampage in
Red Deer Women’s Basketball League action
Monday.
Beth Townsend and
Kaitlin Rye had four
points each for the Rampage.
● In other action the
Spartans go 13 points
from Jaci Horvath in a
59-40 victory over Triple
Threat.
Tamara Steer had 12
points in a losing cause.

ROYAL
LEGACY
CONTINUES...
THE

RDC KINGS & QUEENS
ATHLETICS SEASON 2013|14

vious 10. Little has always been
a strong playmaker for the Jets
but they’ve come to rely on him
even more this season as others
have struggled. With 42 points and
31 games remaining, he’s well on
track to break his NHL careerhigh 51 set in Atlanta in 2008-09.
● Right winger Blake Wheeler
has also boosted his output with
six points in his last five games,
only two fewer than he managed
in his previous 10.
● Rookies Mark Scheifele at
centre and Jacob Trouba on defence have started to perform consistently at a high level. Scheifele
continues to climb in the NHL’s
rookie scoring race, sitting in
fourth spot Wednesday with 28
points.
● Left winger Evander Kane returned from his latest injury Tuesday to score, short-handed, what
proved to be the game winner. As
he left town on the road swing,
Kane said it was his turn to show
Maurice what he could do.
● And Dustin Byfuglien has
managed the Noel-inspired transition to forward well and still holds
the point on power plays.

Yankees
ink Tanaka
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — The Yankees talked frugality, then
reverted to their high-spending ways.
New York capped an off-season spending spree
by agreeing Wednesday to a $155 million, seven-year
contract with prized Japanese pitcher Masahiro
Tanaka.
Following just the second season in 19 years that
didn’t include a playoff appearance, the Yankees
flexed their economic might and committed $438 million to four free agents.
Tanaka joined catcher Brian McCann and outfielders Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran on a revamped roster missing long-time All-Stars Mariano
Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Robinson Cano.
And in addition to the deal with the 25-year-old
right-hander, the Yankees must pay a $20 million
posting fee to Tanaka’s Japanese club, the Rakuten
Golden Eagles.
“Anybody that questioned our commitment to
winning is going to have to question themselves,”
Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner said during a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Big league teams had until Friday to reach an
agreement with Tanaka, who was 24-0 with a 1.27
ERA last year as the Golden Eagles won the Japan
Series title. Arizona, the Chicago Cubs and White
Sox, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston all said
they were among the failed bidders.
Still, the Yankees have ample uncertainty — especially in an AL East where they compete with World
Series champion Boston. And especially with a veteran team that saw 21 players go on the disabled list
last year.
David Robertson appears set to inherit the closer’s role from the retired Rivera, and New York must
try to make up the offence lost when Cano left for a
$240 million, 10-year deal with Seattle. Alex Rodriguez is suspended for the entire season and 39-yearold shortstop Derek Jeter has played just 17 games
since October 2012.
“I think the entire infield is certainly something
that people will focus on,” New York general manager Brian Cashman said. “What’s Brian Roberts going to be? What’s Derek Jeter going to be as he comes
back from his injury? What’s Mark Teixeira going to
be at first base as he comes back from his wrist? Can
Kelly Johnson secure and handle on a consistent basis third base?”
New York went 85-77 last year, its worst record since 1992. Attendance and television ratings
dropped.
The pinstriped response was similar to the Yankees’ behaviour after they missed the playoffs in
2008. They spent $423.5 million on CC Sabathia, A.J.
Burnett and Teixeira, then won their 27th World Series title.
This off-season included big deals for McCann
($85 million for five years), Ellsbury ($153 million for
seven) and Beltran ($45 million for three). Combined
with agreements to re-sign Hiroki Kuroda and Brendan Ryan, and to add Roberts, Johnson and Matt
Thornton, the Yankees’ off-season spending on free
agents totals $471 million. Add the posting fee, and
the cost was nearly a half-billion dollars.

confidence booster, they certainly
got it in Anaheim. The Jets handed the Ducks their first regulation
home loss this season and it made
Maurice look more prophet than
cockeyed optimist when he said
earlier this week that, on a onegame basis, any team can beat any
team in the NHL.
At 23-23-5, the Jets are still just
barely back in .500 territory. To
make the playoffs, something the
franchise has managed only once
in its entire history in Atlanta or
Winnipeg, the current winning
streak pretty well has to continue,
or at least not see many long interruptions. But there is at least a
glimmer of hope for fans who just
two weeks ago were raining boos
down on the home team.
Some of the good things:
● Ondrej Pavelec’s save percentage has finally crept back
above the .900 mark. His goaltending (40 saves) was a big reason the
Ducks were stymied in their bid
to extend their winning ways at
home Tuesday.
● Centre Bryan Little is on fire
with eight points in five games, after managing just three in his pre-

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The
NFL and personnel at MetLife Stadium had a Super Bowl pop quiz on
snow removal less than two weeks before the title game between the Denver
Broncos and Seattle Seahawks.
The league and stadium officials
decided to use a winter storm that
dumped a foot or more of snow in the
New York City metropolitan area Tuesday as somewhat of a dress rehearsal
to see how quickly they could clean
the 80,000-seat facility that will hold
the first outdoor Super Bowl in cold
weather.
NFL executive vice-president Eric
Grubman said Wednesday an 18-hour
time limit was set for removing the
snow from the stadium, surrounding
parking lots and access roads in the
Meadowlands sports complex, where
the game will be played Feb. 2.
Grubman refused to speculate
whether the storm that snarled roads,
closed schools and had states of emergency in New Jersey, New York City
and some surrounding areas would
have caused the Super Bowl to be postponed. He said that would be a decision made by state authorities.
Grubman, however, said the league
has several contingency plans for the
game, including moving it up to Friday
or Saturday, pushing it back to Monday or adjusting the scheduled start
on Sunday deal with the weather. The
game is scheduled to start at 6:25 p.m.
EST.
“Based on the long-range forecast,
all that I would even hazard to guess
is that it is probably going to be cold. I
doubt we are going to have an unusual

warm spell,” Grubman said at the news
conference originally called to showcase how the stadium was preparing
for the Super Bowl.
The snowstorm on Tuesday was a
fortuitous coincidence for the coldweather Super Bowl.
MetLife spokeswoman Nicole Fountain said the stadium and its contractors had 1,300 workers removing the 13
inches of snow that fell in and around
the stadium. The crews started removal at around 8 a.m. and had sections
of the stadium and most of the tarpcovered field cleared by noon.
During this past season, the crews
removed six inches of wet, iced-packed
snow in roughly 12 hours before a Seahawks-Giants game on Dec. 15, Ron
VanDeVeen, the stadium’s senior vicepresident of events said Wednesday.
The snow being removed Wednesday
was not as heavy, he said.
Grubman said the league is prepared to play the game even if there is
still some snow in the stands.
“Games are played with snow all the
time,” he said. “It’s not just MetLife
Stadium. I think the crowd will be an
exceptional crowd and they will enjoy
the game. I don’t think they will be
fazed by a little bit of snow on their
seats, if that’s what comes to pass. We
aim to not have that happen, but if it
happens, it’s sort of what happens in
NFL stadiums all the time.”
Grubman also displayed warm welcome kits that fans will receive entering the stadium on game day. Cushions
hold the kit items which included ear
and hand muffs, mittens, a hat, neck
warmers, lip balm and other items.

Peyton Manning taps brakes in
playoffs on highest-scoring team
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — After hurrying Denver’s quick-strike, high-octane
offence through a record-shattering
regular season, Peyton Manning has
turned the Broncos into a slow-grinding, clock-eating machine in the playoffs.
Denver’s three most time-consuming
drives of the season have all come in
the last two weeks, helping to render
opposing passers short-tempered sideline spectators.
In dispatching the San Diego Chargers and the New England Patriots,
Manning dinked and dunked his way
downfield.
“To keep Tom Brady on the sideline
is a good thing,” Manning said after
directing two epic drives in Denver’s
26-16 win in the AFC Championship.
Denver’s downshift, some of it by
design, some due to circumstance, has
thrown a new wrinkle into an already
formidable test that Seattle’s stingy
defence will have to prepare for in the
Super Bowl.
After averaging seven plays, 65
yards and just over 3 minutes, 10 seconds on their 71 touchdown drives
during the season, the Broncos have
doubled the time to 6:23 in the postseason and the touchdown drives have
averaged 12 plays and 79.4 yards.
With a wealth of receivers in Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker, Wes
Welker and Julius Thomas and a rejuvenated running back in Knowshon
Moreno, the Broncos are the first team
in NFL history to sport five players
who each caught 60 or more passes.
Each member of this quintet also
reached the end zone 10 or more times,

something that’s never been done before.
Offensive co-ordinator Adam Gase
capitalized on all that firepower, Denver’s altitude and Manning’s deciphering of defences at the line of scrimmage to ramp up the Broncos to breakneck speed with a no-huddle offence
that created mismatches in 2013 after
taking over from the more conservative Mike McCoy following last year’s
playoff upset.
The Broncos scored an NFL-record
606 points. Their 37.9-point average
was the highest of the Super Bowl era
and second only to the 1950 Los Angeles Rams, who averaged 38.8 points.
The Broncos could have beaten that
mark, too, had Manning not sat out the
second half at Oakland in Week 17 after guiding Denver to a 31-0 halftime
lead.
Taking away the three field goals
backup Brock Osweiler led the Broncos to this season and Denver’s five
return touchdowns, Manning’s offence
accounted for 565 points in just over
453 minutes on the field.
That’s 1.25 points per minute.
Scoring doesn’t come as easily in
the playoffs, however.
The most prolific team before this
season was the 2007 Patriots, who
scored 589 points, an average of 36.8,
in the regular season and then averaged just 22 in the post-season, losing
the Super Bowl 17-14 to the New York
Giants.
While the Broncos have scored on
10 of their 14 drives this post-season,
not counting the two possessions that
ended in victory formation, half of
those have been field goals by Matt
Prater after promising drives stalled at
their opponents’ 27, 9, 17, 2 and 35.

Seattle’s Sherman surprised
by reaction to interview
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RENTON, Wash. — Richard Sherman wondered if he came to the NFL
20 years too late.
The Seattle Seahawks’ All-Pro
cornerback wondered if his swagger
might have fit better a few decades
earlier when that confidence and an
unfiltered tongue was perhaps more
accepted.
“I studied the old school game more
than I studied the new school game,
and I play it that way. It rubs a lot of
people the wrong way,” Sherman said
Wednesday.
“Giving a true speech after a game,
a true passionate speech is old school
football. Playing press corner and sitting up there every play is old school
football. I guess maybe I just haven’t
adjusted to the times.”
Sherman spoke at length for the
first time since Sunday’s NFC championship game win over San Francisco
where his postgame comments to Fox
reporter Erin Andrews became the
talking point. It was a loud, emotional
moment that happened just a few minutes after the Seahawks earned the
second Super Bowl berth in franchise
history.
Sherman was at the centre of the
decisive play, deflecting a pass intended for Michael Crabtree in the end
zone and watching teammate Malcolm
Smith run over to intercept it to clinch
the victory.
Sherman’s ensuing remarks were

directed mostly at Crabtree but his
intense, shouting delivery is what took
people aback.
Sherman said the reaction that followed over the next two days left him a
little stunned as well.
“I was surprised by it. Because
we’re talking about football here and a
lot of people took it a little bit further
than football.” Sherman said.
“I guess some people showed how
far we have really come in this day and
age and it was kind of profound what
happened and people’s opinions of
that nature, because I was on a football
field showing passion. Maybe it was
misdirected, maybe things may have
been immature, maybe things could
have been worded better but this is
on a football field. I didn’t commit any
crimes, I wasn’t doing anything illegal.
I was showing passion after a football
game.”
Sherman apologized for taking away
the spotlight from the performances
by some of his teammates. Marshawn
Lynch’s 109 yards rushing and 40-yard
touchdown, Jermaine Kearse’s 35-yard
touchdown catch on fourth-down and
Bobby Wagner’s 15 tackles all became
secondary to Sherman’s words.
What seemed to bother Sherman
the most in the fallout was hearing the
word “thug” attached to his name.
“The only reason it bothers me is it
seems like it’s an accepted way of calling someone the N-word nowadays. It’s
like everybody else said the N-word
and they said thug and they’re like,
‘that’s fine,”’ Sherman said.

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($1,695) and excludes licence, insurance, registration, any dealer administration fees, other dealer charges and other applicable fees and taxes. Dealer order/trade
may be necessary. Dealer may sell for less. •$24,998 Purchase Price applies to the 2014 Jeep Cherokee Sport FWD. $39,498 Purchase Price applies to the 2014
Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. ‡3.49% purchase financing for up to 96 months available on the new 2014 Jeep Cherokee Sport FWD model to qualified customers on
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a Purchase Price of $24,998 financed at 3.49% over 96 months with $0 down payment equals 208 bi-weekly payments of $138 with a cost of borrowing of $3,669
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ELDER CARE
IN ALBERTA
A researcher in the field
of elder care in Alberta
will speak to the Central
Alberta Council on Aging
in Red Deer on Feb. 4.
Shannon Stunden Bower,
research director for the
Parkland Institute at the
University of Alberta, will
speak at 9 a.m. at the
Golden Circle, at 4620
47A Ave. The report is
called From Bad to Worse:
Residential elder care
in Alberta. The report
documents problems with
residential elder care in
Alberta. It explores the
impacts of privatization
on the well-being of
Albertans. The cost to
attend the event is $3.
For more information, call
Shirley Thomas at 403343-0767 or Ron Rose at
403-346-8115.

The demolition of the once
proud Sylvan Lake Arena is
now in the hands of the insurance company, after an emergency town council meeting was
held on Tuesday.
And help is pouring in from
surrounding communities, offering what they can to help out
with the sudden loss of available ice time.
Graham Parsons, town councillor and arena operator, said
the town is waiting for the insurance company to look at the
collapsed rink and take the next
steps.
“We’re waiting to get into the
Multiplex (containing a second
ice surface, next door), but we
can’t get into the Multiplex until
the old structure is torn down,”
said Parsons. “From what I understand, the insurance company is in charge of the demolition and everybody is working
as fast as they can.”
The more than 40-year-old
rink collapsed early Monday
morning. On Tuesday night,
an emergency council meeting
was held, briefing council and
people on what happened, and
what they can expect to happen over the next few days and
weeks.
The arena is damage beyond
repair. Parsons is unsure when
the demolition will begin.
He said there was a sizable
gallery of people at the meeting.
“The crowd was basically
there for information and to
give their support,” said Parsons.
“Which was unbelievable

HERBALIST
HOLDING
FUNDRAISING
SEMINAR
A local herbalist is offering
a fundraising seminar
for the Central Alberta
Women’s Emergency
Shelter on Jan. 29. Abrah
Arneson, a Red Deer
Advocate columnist, is
hosting the seminar at the
Snell Auditorium at the
Red Deer Public Library
from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The seminar for women
is called Herbal Medicine
for Balance. The seminar
will address how herbs
can help women with a
variety of issues, including
cravings, emotions,
fluctuating hormones,
or even trying to get
pregnant. The cost is
$25, with all proceeds
to the women’s shelter.
To register, call 403-3522820. For details, check
www.abraherbs.com.

CORRECTION
An in Tuesday’s Advocate
had an incorrect admission
price for The Beatles
Tribute Dinner Theatre in
Innisfail on Feb. 14. Tickets
are $50. For details, call
403-227-6660.

GIVE US A CALL
The Advocate invites its
readers to help cover news
in Central Alberta. We
would like to hear from
you if you see something
worthy of coverage. And
we would appreciate
hearing from you if you
see something inaccurate
in our pages. We strive
for complete, accurate
coverage of Central
Alberta and are happy to
correct any errors we may
commit. Call 403-3144333.

Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff

Long-time Sylvan Lake cottage owner Tip Potter of Red Deer stopped by the Sylvan Lake Arena
Wednesday to see for himself the damage after the roof of the building collapsed earlier this week.
“It’s a shame it really is,” said Potter who has a lot of good memories from the building. “It’s lucky no
one was killed,” he said.
because normally when you
have a full gallery, it’s not happy people. These people were
good, solid citizens who were
concerned.”
In the meantime, Parsons
said he has heard from many
rinks in the region, offering
what they can. Although ice
time is limited, especially for
practice, he said he has received a lot of support.
“Every community within 50
km has phoned,” said Parsons.
“Caroline, Rocky Mountain
House, Rimbey, Eckville, Bentley, Lacombe, Ponoka, Clive.

Red Deer phoned to say ‘We’d
love to help,’ and they would if
they could because we helped
them when Kin City was down.”
Many more communities
phoned offering support. However, practice ice time, especially during the week, will be
the biggest challenge with ice
time being hard enough to come
by under normal circumstances.
The rink has some sentimental value for Parsons. The Sunday before the collapse, they
had a tournament cancel so
Parsons spent the day cleaning
the rink.

PERFECT ICE

“It gave us a chance to get
it all organized and scrub it
down,” said Parsons. “When I
left on Sunday, I went upstairs,
went through all the rooms and
they were in as good a shape,
as clean as they’ve ever been. It
was as clean as could be.
“We dressed her up to die.”
He operates the annual Sylvan Lake Hockey Camp, which
won’t end with the collapse of
the arena. They’re merely moving into the Multiplex a year
ahead of time.
mcrawford@reddeeradvocate.
com

Jose David found the ice to be in perfect condition at the speed skating
oval in downtown Red Deer Tuesday. Located near the Recreation
Centre and the Golden Circle the rink is in fine shape now and draws
recreational skaters through the day as well as speed skating athletes.

LOCAL

BRIEFS
Rocky candidate
returns to council
An unsuccessful Rocky Mountain
House mayoral candidate has regained
her seat on council through a byelection.
Sheila Mizera gave up her seat on
council to run for mayor in last October’s municipal elections but lost out to
Fred Nash.
Mizera got another crack at council
when first-time councillor Rudy Lange
had to step down because of health issues.
In a Jan. 15 by election, Mizera finished with 167 votes, Jim Kult had 139
and Matthew Kramer had 43.
A fourth candidate and former councillor Ernie Murias had submitted nomination papers but later withdrew.

Man given prison term
A Red Deer man who pleaded guilty
to property crimes in the city in November received a three-year prison sentence last week.
Kyle Robert Meckler, 28, was sentenced to 1,080 days and was given credit for 55 days pre-trial custody.
Meckler pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, break
and enter into a structure not a dwelling house and possession of stolen
property in Red Deer provincial court
on Jan. 15. Other charges were withdrawn.

Meckler originally faced 16 charges
following a break-in on Nov. 21 in the
200 block of Duston Street.
He returns to Red Deer provincial
court on Jan. 29 to face charges from alleged break-ins in Eckville on the weekend of Nov. 16.

Temporary snow dump found
Some of this winter’s record snowfall in Red Deer will be shipped to the
North Highway Connector road-right-of
way, west of the Red Deer River, south
of the wastewater treatment plant, accessible from 78th Street Crescent.
The City of Red Deer received approval from Alberta Environment and
Sustainable Resource Department to
open a temporary snow storage site on
Wednesday.
The approval for the temporary site
has only been granted until the snow
melts and until the site cleanup occurs.
The city closed its two existing snow
storage sites last week to private contractors because the sites were reaching
capacity.
Public Works manager Greg Sikora
said this site was ideal because it is
on an unconstructed road right-of-way,
equipped with storm drainage and
storm treatment.
More than 50 sites were considered.
This site is tentatively scheduled to
open next week to registered private
snow hauling companies.
To register, companies can call Public Works at 403-342-8238.

Free rides could soon be on the way for Central
Alberta cancer patients.
The Canadian Cancer Society is preparing to
launch its volunteer driver program in Red Deer
and the surrounding area for the first time.
The call is out for a minimum of 20 dedicated
people who can drive patients to the Central Alberta Cancer Centre from their homes in Red
Deer, Lacombe, Blackfalds, Sylvan Lake and Innisfail.
“We’re looking for people who are available
to drive one day a week or two half days to take
patients to and from treatment so they have one
less thing to worry about,” said Erica Bell, the
society’s Red Deer-based volunteer engagement
co-ordinator.
According to Bell, the Red Deer Cancer Centre
is seeing about 25 radiation patients a day.
The service makes the difficult treatment process easier as patients do not have to depend on
family members who are already usually doing so
much, Bell said.
“There’s so many challenges facing someone
who lives with cancer, like financial challenges.
Just parking at a facility can add up and we take
care of that with our drivers. Or trying to get a taxi
from Sylvan Lake. There’s physical challenges too;
maybe they do have a car and can drive but can’t
after treatment because they’re so tired.”
Ideally, the society hopes to have the program
up and running with a call centre where patients
can phone in for a ride by early or mid-February.
So far, about a dozen people have applied for
the program and Bell is in the midst of the screening process.
“There’s still a real need. We really need a
good core of volunteers, otherwise, it just doesn’t
run.”
Drivers need to be prepared to commit long
term — at least a year — said Bell.
“We’re looking for long-term volunteers because there is so much training and screening involved. We understand people do go away — snow
birds and what not — so we’re flexible in that
regard.”
All volunteers must undergo a criminal record check and a full day of training and hospital
orientation so they know where to take patients.
They must have a reliable vehicle and are reimbursed for mileage.
Volunteer driver programs are running in Calgary, Edmonton and Lethbridge.
The patients who use the programs in those cities call it “their lifeline to treatment” and say the
volunteer drivers are “crucial members of a team
that’s helping them survive,” Bell said.
Anyone interested in volunteering can call 403347-3662 or email volunteer@cancer.ab.ca.
rfrancoeur@reddeeradvocate.com

Assadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
future at heart
of peace talks
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Three killed in
Ukraine protests
TWO WERE SHOT WITH LIVE AMMUNITION: PROSECUTORS
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KYIV, Ukraine â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Two people whose dead bodies
were found Wednesday near the site of clashes with
police were shot with live ammunition, prosecutors
said Wednesday, raising fears that their deaths could
further fuel violence on the streets of the Ukrainian
capital after two months of largely peaceful protests.
Medics at the site said a third man also died after
he fell from a high point near a sports arena at the
site of clashes, but Natalia Vishnevska, spokeswoman for the city health department, said that man survived the fall and was being treated in the hospital.
The protestersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; deaths fuelled fears that daily protests aimed at bringing down the government over its
decision to shun the European Union for closer ties
to Moscow and over human rights violations could
escalate and turn even more violent.
Prosecutors said the two men were shot with live
ammunition, and have opened a criminal investigation to determine who was responsible.
Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said the police
did not have live ammunition and charged that opposition leaders should be held responsible for the
deaths.
The three main opposition parties, meanwhile,
issued a statement blaming President Viktor Yanukovych and his staunch ally Interior Minister Vitali
Zakharchenko for the deaths.
The mass protests erupted after Yanukovych
spurned a pact with the European Union in favour
of close ties with Russia, which offered him a $15 billion bailout.
They swelled to hundreds of thousands after a
small peaceful rally was violently broken up by police. Seeing the government ignore their demands
and opposition leaders unable to present a coherent
plan or even select a single leader, radical protesters
have clashed with riot police in Kyiv since Sunday.
The deaths came on the fourth day of violent
street battles between protesters hurling fire bombs
and stones and police firing back with tear gas, stun

grenades and rubber bullets. The bodies were found
before police moved to tear down protesters barricades near official buildings in central Kyiv and
chased demonstrators away.
Helmeted riot police moved in on hundreds of
protesters, dismantling the barricades, beating many
with truncheons and firing shots at some.
One man was attacked by over a dozen policemen, was made to take off his winter jacket off and
dragged away, where he was beaten again. Dark
smoke from burning tires billowed in the air and an
armoured vehicle was seen near police lines.
The police drove demonstrators down a hill toward the main protest site on Independence Square,
where protesters have set up an extensive tent camp
and rallied around the clock since November. There
was no immediate police move on the main camp.
Oleksandr Turchynov, one of opposition leaders,
called on Ukrainians to rush to the centre of Kyiv to
defend their country. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ukraine will not be a dictatorship, it will be an independent, European country.
Let us defend Ukraine!â&#x20AC;?
The U.S. Embassy said it was revoking the visas of
some Ukrainian officials linked to the violence and
was considering further action. The embassy would
not name the officials, citing privacy laws. The EU
condemned the violence and said it was also considering action against the Ukrainian government.
After several days of refusing face-to-face talks,
Yanukovych met Wednesday with three main opposition leaders to negotiate a solution.
The protests were the biggest since the peaceful
2004 Orange Revolution, which annulled Yanukovychâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fraud-tinged victory in a presidential vote
and forced a new vote that brought his pro-Western
rival to power. The current protests were also largely peaceful for nearly two months, but turned violent
after Yanukovych, elected in 2010, pushed through
sweeping anti-protest legislation and ignored all the
protestersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; demands.
The deaths mark a turning point in the stand-off
that could lead to more violence.

Email threatening
Sochi terror attacks
a hoax: officials
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BUDAPEST, Hungary â&#x20AC;&#x201D; An email in Russian and
English threatening national Olympic delegations
and athletes with terrorist attacks at the Sochi Winter Games is a hoax, not a real danger, officials said
Wednesday.
Hungarian sports officials, who first reported
the email, said they have received assurances from
the International Olympic Committee and from the
Sochi organizers that the email had no merit. In light
of that, the Hungarian Olympic Committee said it
will still take part in the Winter Games, which run
from Feb. 7-23.
Olympic committees from several other European
countries, including Germany, Britain and Austria,
said they had also received a similar message. None
would share them with The Associated Press.
Wolfgang Eichler, spokesman for the Austrian National Olympic Committee, said the email was a hoax
that officials had seen before.

Gunmen attack police escort
for Spanish cyclist in Pakistan
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
QUETTA, Pakistan â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Gunmen opened fire on
Pakistani police escorting a Spanish cyclist through
a volatile province bordering Iran on Wednesday,
killing six officers and wounding the Spaniard, said
officials.
The attack on the cyclist, who had just arrived
from Iran, came one day after militants in the same
region killed 28 people in a bus convoy of Shiite
Muslim pilgrims. One police officer said authorities
suspected the same group carried out both attacks.
The Spanish cyclist had arrived in the town of
Dalbandin, about 350 kilometres from Quetta, provincial capital of Baluchistan, on Tuesday evening
after biking from the Iranian border, said the provincial Home Secretary, Asadur Rehman Gilani.
Local authorities asked him to stay overnight out
of concern for his safety and then arranged a police
escort of more than a dozen officers to take him to
Quetta on Wednesday morning, Gilani said.
When they were in the Mastung district, about 70
kilometres from Quetta, gunmen opened fire.
Six policemen were killed, while the cyclist and
another nine police officers were wounded, according to a police official Mohammed Ibrahim.
The Spanish embassy in Islamabad did not return
telephone calls seeking comment.
The Home Secretary identified the Spaniard as
Colorado Solana while the Spanish media identified
him as Javier Colorado. A blog written by the Spaniard said he was cycling around the world and that
he had been the victim of an attack in Pakistan.
Tourists have been targeted in Baluchistan before. Gunmen last March kidnapped two female
Czech tourists and their police guard as they were
travelling on a bus from Iran to Quetta. The captives
were taken to Afghanistan and the officer released

but the women are still being held.
No one claimed responsibility for the shooting
Wednesday, but Ibrahim said he suspected the same
group that targeted a group of Shiite pilgrims returning from Iran on Tuesday was responsible for the
Wednesday incident as well.
He described the group as â&#x20AC;&#x153;sectarian.â&#x20AC;? Radical
Sunni Islamic militants who view Shiites as heretics
have stepped up attacks against members of the
minority Shiite Muslim sect in recent years. Over
400 Shiites were killed in 2013, according to Human
Rights Watch. Violence has been especially bad in
impoverished Baluchistan.
Police initially said 20 people died when a bomb
exploded near the pilgrimsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; bus, but on Wednesday,
a local police official, Asad Cheema, said the death
toll had risen to 28. Some of the wounded were still
listed in critical condition.
Shiite Muslims rallied Wednesday in Quetta,
demanding action to stop the continued violence
against their sect. In a show of protest, they brought
the coffins carrying the dead pilgrims into the street.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;We will not bury our dear ones until the government acts against the attackers,â&#x20AC;? local Shiite leader
Agha Dawood said.
Militants also struck in the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s northwest. A
bomb rigged to a bicycle exploded next to a police
patrol on its way to guard a polio vaccination team.
Six officers were killed as well as a boy who was
nearby, said officer Shafiullah Khan.

FUTURE SHOP â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Correction Notice
In the January 17 flyer, page 18, the Samsung 5.2 Cu.
Ft. Front Load Steam Washer (WebCode: 10199225)
was advertised with incorrect specs. Please be
advised that this washer has a capacity of 5.2 cu.
ft., NOT 5.7 cu. ft. as previously advertised. We
sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may
have caused our valued customers.

Invite friends, family, and coworkers
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f

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t

45792A23

Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A protester throws a Molotov cocktail during clashes with police in central Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday. Three
people have died in clashes between protesters and police in the Ukrainian capital, according to medics on
the site, in a development that will likely escalate Ukraineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s two month-long political crisis.

MONTREUX, Switzerland â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Furiously divided
from the start, representatives of Syrian President
Bashar Assad and the rebellion against him threatened Wednesday to collapse a peace conference intended to lead them out of civil war.
Assadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future in the country devastated by three
years of bloodshed was at the heart of the sparring,
which took place against a pristine Alpine backdrop
as Syrian forces and rebel fighters clashed across
a wide area from Aleppo and Idlib in the north to
Daraa in the south.
U.S. and UN officials said merely getting the two
sides in the same room was something of a victory,
but UN chief Ban Ki-moonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s claim that the discussions were â&#x20AC;&#x153;harmonious and constructiveâ&#x20AC;? was at
odds with the testy exchange when he tried to get the
podium from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;You live in New York. I live in Syria,â&#x20AC;? Moallem
angrily told Ban. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have the right to give the Syrian
version here in this forum. After three years of suffering, this is my right.â&#x20AC;?
With little common ground, the two sides were
to meet separately Thursday with a UN negotiator,
Lakhdar Brahimi, who said he still did not know if
they were ready to sit at the same table when talks
begin in earnest Friday. But, Brahimi said, both
sides had shown some willingness to bend on local
cease-fires and delivery of humanitarian aid, and
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said they
were also working on possible terms for a prisoner
exchange.
The Western-backed opposition said Assadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s departure was their starting point, echoing the position
laid out by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;The resolution cannot be about one manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or
one familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x201D; insistence on clinging to power,â&#x20AC;?
Kerry said.
The response from the government delegation was
firm and blunt.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;There will be no transfer of power, and President Bashar Assad is staying,â&#x20AC;? Syrian Information
Minister Omran al-Zoubi told reporters.

@cityofreddeer

DEVELOPED BY THE FACULTY OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND RECREATION AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA AND FUNDED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF ALBERTA

BRIEF
Eva Longoria aims to inject
energy into animated series
TORONTO — Eva Longoria says she’s hoping to inject a little female energy into the world of animated
television.
The former Desperate Housewives star says it’s one
of the reasons she’s now doing the animated series,
Mother Up! for City.
“I’ve never done a full animated series before.
I’ve done some voiceover work and I thought, ‘Oh my
God, this would be so much fun to do,”’ Longoria said
last spring during a stop in Toronto to promote the
largely Canadian-made comedy.
“They approached me with the idea of having a female-oriented show, which is non-existent in animation. You know, you have the Family Guy, you have
American Dad, you have The Simpsons, and so there
was like a void of female energy within the space.”
In Mother Up!, Longoria provides the voice of lead
character Rudi, a high-powered Manhattan music executive who is forced to leave her job when a public
relations scandal erupts.
She decides to flee to “Willowdale, Canada” until
the heat dies down, and dedicates herself to becoming a full-time suburban mom to her two kids.
Needless to say, the transition is not smooth. Although the hard-drinking,
foul-mouthed Rudi is a

Photo by ADVOCATE news services

ABOVE: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings have been excavating the sounds of classic American R&B for more
than a decade. The group’s new album is Give the People What they Want.
LEFT: John Newman, a 23-year-old newcomer from Britain, sounds like a heartsick, insomniac Otis Redding
on his debut album, Tribute.

COMMENT
same thing? And who wants to sing ‘em?
Not John Newman, a pompadoured newcomer
from the U.K. who, like Sharon Jones, consistently
puts his powerful voice in service of the past. The
singer’s debut album, Tribute, resurrects the vibes
of the Northern Soul scene that swept Northern
England in the ’60s and ’70s while cranking up the
volume for the digital age. The horn section screams,
the string section wails, the drums pelt and pummel.
Amongst all this bluster is a man in great pain.
shark when it comes to juggling needy celebrities
and aggressive media reporters, she’s a disaster
among little ones.

Singer Elton John challenges
Russian anti-gay law
NEW YORK — Entertainer-songwriter Elton John
is declaring his support of the Russian people, and
he says they still accept him despite that country’s
harsh new anti-gay law.
Passed last year, the so-called “gay propaganda”
law bans promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations” to minors.
John said Wednesday that he visited Russia in
December concerned that the new law would affect
how he was treated as “an openly gay foreigner.” He
says he received a warm welcome.
But if foreign visitors are unaffected by the law,
John says it has legitimized “vicious homophobia”
against gay Russians.
John calls the legislation “deeply dangerous” to
the gay and lesbian community, and “deeply divisive” to Russian society.

Sales jump for Catcher In the Rye,
after PBS airs documentary
NEW YORK — The airing of a J.D. Salinger documentary has returned The Catcher in the Rye to the
top of bestseller lists.
Catcher was No. 1 on Amazon.com and No. 20 on
Barnes & Noble.com within hours of Salinger appear-

Newman’s choruses burst violently into existence,
making the 23-year-old sound like a heartsick, insomniac Otis Redding. “Whoever said love was easy?” he
pleads to the universe during the roaring chorus of
Easy. “You know they told you wrong.”
Newman doesn’t make anything on Tribute sound
easy, including his breakout single, Love Me Again
It’s another R&B flashback asking another tortured question — “Can you love me again?” — but it
packs a wallop that’s as invigorating as it is frustrating.
As Newman tries to mend his messed-up heart
with the sounds of yesteryear, he’s left wondering
what comes next instead of showing us.
ing Tuesday night on PBS stations.
Rankings for other Salinger books also surged.
Nine Stories was No. 77 on Wednesday morning, jumping from No. 6,639 the day before. Franny and Zooey
rose from 6,191 to 172.
The documentary directed by Shane Salerno was
released in movie theatres last fall. It alleges that at
least five new books by Salinger will be published.
Salinger reportedly wrote steadily over the last 45
years of his life but permitted nothing to be released.
He died in 2010 at 91.

Are tomorrow’s R&B singers doomed to chase after yesterday?
Nowadays, it sure
feels like it. Every genre
endures spasms of revivalism, but ever since
the rise and fall of Amy
Winehouse, R&B has
proven a particularly
nifty field to restage
the past. Adele ponders
a Dusty Springfield
biopic. R. Kelly teleports to 1960-whatever.
Robin Thicke pantomimes Marvin Gaye. On
and on, we keep going
back.
Sharon Jones and the
Dap-Kings have made a
career of it, excavating the sounds of classic American R&B for more than a decade, and with the
group’s new album, Give the People What They Want,
they’ve arrived at their strongest composite.
This is pop time travel at its most articulate and
dynamic, channeling Motown, Muscle Shoals, Stax
and James Brown all in one easy stroke. Jones — a
57-year-old who recently beat cancer — sings about
stung hearts and fiery farewells, and on Stranger to
My Happiness sounds like she was born in the groove.
It’s all rather unsurprising, yet hard to dislike —
the kind of music that presents itself confidently,
affirms your good taste, then finds shelter under the
umbrella of timelessness.
But there are still strange external forces at work
here. The magnetism of these songs originates from
the same mystery space that gives Renaissance fairs
and Civil War re-enactments their weirdo gravity —
they all give us the opportunity to feel an approximation of feelings we were born too late to feel.
Is that what the people want?
Funny how throwback R&B can spark nostalgia
for the future. More than a decade ago, uber-producers Timbaland and the Neptunes were using alien
digital timbres to build love songs that resembled
science fiction. They cemented futurism onto the list
of American R&B’s defining traits, making the genre
feel inherently optimistic. As scary as our new century may have seemed, we’d still have Valentine’s Day.
The same idea floats through the California haze
in Spike Jonze’s recent triumph, Her, a film that isn’t
warning us about the unstoppable march of technology so much as hypothesizing how love might feel
tomorrow. Is it unfair to crave R&B tunes that do the

LUANN
Jan. 23
1995 — Defence Minister David Collenette disbands the Canadian Airborne
Regiment; after some of its soldiers were
found to be involved in the death of a
Somali boy during a UN mission, and
revelations of illegal hazing rituals.
1995 — British Columbia blocks Al-

can’s $1.3-billion Kemano power dam
development, citing the threat to its salmon fishery.
1992 — The Supreme Court of Canada rules that the federal government can
conduct environmental reviews on any
projects under its jurisdiction.
1984 — Stuart and Lillian Kelly of
Brantford, Ont., collect $13,890,588.80
for holding the winning ticket in Lotto
6-49; it is the largest lottery prize to date.

ARGYLE SWEATER

RUBES

TODAY IN HISTORY

TUNDRA

SUDOKU
Complete the grid so
that every row, every
column and 3x3 box
contains every digit
from 1 through 9.
SHERMAN‛S LAGOON

Solution

BUSINESS

C5
Pipeline watched like a hawk

THURSDAY, JAN. 23, 2014

KEYSTONE XL SOUTH LEG STARTS UP
BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
CALGARY — Canadian oilsands producers have a direct
pipeline link between Alberta
and the U.S. Gulf Coast with
the official start-up Wednesday of the Keystone XL pipeline’s southern leg.
The project’s opposition,
meanwhile, vowed to watch
the new pipeline “like a hawk”
as it continues to urge President Barack Obama to reject
the larger, more contentious
northern leg of the system.
“This morning we have
made a major change in
where the largest refining

hub in the world gets is oil,”
said Alex Pourbaix, the executive in charge of oil pipelines at TransCanada Corp.
(TSX:TRP), the company that
built the line.
CEO Russ Girling described the US$2.3-billion
project as a “win-win-win”
for U.S. Gulf refiners, who’ll
get access to a cheaper, more
secure source of crude; for
North American crude producers, who’ll get a better
price for their landlocked oil,
and for consumers, who may
pay a cheaper price at the
pump as expensive foreign
imports are supplanted.
The only losers, he said, are

the foreign suppliers whose
product will be pushed out of
the lucrative Gulf market.
“We’re seeing an enormous
change in North American energy markets and how energy
gets delivered,” Girling told a
news conference Wednesday.
“The Gulf Coast pipeline
was designed to connect North
American oil production to
North American markets.”
He said there’s “not a
chance” that crude will be exported overseas from the Gulf
— at least not in his lifetime —
disputing a common assertion
from pipeline opponents.
In 2010, TransCanada began
shipping crude to U.S. Mid-

west refineries on its original
Keystone system, extending
the line a year later to Cushing, Okla., home to an enormous oil hub that’s been brimming with North American
supplies.
The glut at Cushing has
been pushing down prices of
landlocked North American
crude.
The pipeline that came into
service on Wednesday extends
the existing line from Cushing
to the Texas coast, where refiners are thirsty for Canadian
crude to replace cargoes from
places such as Venezuela.
Relatively meagre volumes
of about 50,000 barrels per day

of Canadian crude have been
able to indirectly “wiggle”
their way to the Gulf, Girling
said.
The new line means that
this year, more than 10 times
that amount could theoretically be shipped to the Gulf
Coast market on the Keystone
System.
The Gulf Coast line is starting out with a capacity of
300,000 barrels a day, and is
expected to average 520,000
barrels a day in its first year
of operation. It has the potential to eventually be expanded
to 830,000 barrels a day.

Please see KEYSTONE on Page C6

Bank keeps
rate steady
WITH EYE ON
LOW INFLATION
BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA — Canada’s central bank raised concerns Wednesday about the country’s persistently
low inflation rate, a trend that the average consumer
may welcome, but could lead to bigger problems.
While it sees improvements in the domestic economy, the Bank of Canada said inflation is now expected to be lower than it had previously projected
— in part because of competition among retailers.
The concern came as the Bank of Canada kept its
key interest rate at one per cent, where it has been
since September 2010.
Disinflation, or a slowing in the rate at which
prices rise, seems to lasting longer than expected,
governor Stephen Poloz said.
It’s good for consumers because it means they
have more spending power, but it’s “not just the gift
that it sounds like,” he said.
Central banks are usually more preoccupied with
controlling high inflation, but low inflation is equally
concerning because it can be evidence of weakness
in the economy and could lead to deflation, where
prices actually fall.
“Deflation would be defined as not just falling
prices, but also falling wages at the same time, and
just imagine what that would feel like with your
mortgage still the same number,” Poloz said.
The bank expects the total inflation rate to remain
at 0.9 per cent in the first half of 2014, down from its
previous forecast of 1.2 per cent.
But that should “increase very gradually” and
reach the bank’s ideal target of two per cent in last
quarter of 2015.
Canada’s total inflation rate was 0.9 per cent in
November, the seventh month in the past 13 in which
the official headline inflation reading came in below
the bank’s desired range of between one and three
per cent.
Statistics Canada will release December inflation
figures on Friday.
Inflation needs to be within the bank’s target
range so there’s room to manoeuvre if there’s another economic shock, Poloz said.
“So if you are where we are today, which is significantly below target, it leaves you ill-prepared for any
bad news that could happen.”
But Poloz made no move on interest rates, keeping the bank’s key rate at one per cent and maintaining a neutral stance on whether its next move will be
to raise or lower the rate from where it has been for
more than three years.
The bank noted that inflation in Canada is expected to “remain well below target for some time,” so
the “downside risks have grown in importance.”
“The most important risks are stronger U.S. investment, underperformance in Canadian exports,
and imbalances in the household sector,” it said.
Canada’s economic growth in the second half of
2013 was better than expected and should pick up
from an estimated 1.8 per cent last year to 2.5 per
cent both this year and next, it said. Global growth —
led by stronger momentum in the U.S. — is expected
to rise from 2.9 per cent in 2013, to 3.4 per cent and
3.7 per cent in the following years.

File photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A person displays Netflix on a tablet. Netflix’s fourth-quarter earnings soared six-fold as the Internet video
service added another 2.3 million U.S. subscribers

Netflix’s Q4 earnings, stock soar
VIDEO SERVICE ADDS 2.3 MILLION U.S. SUBSCRIBERS
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO — Netflix’s
fourth-quarter earnings soared
six-fold as the Internet video service added another 2.3 million
U.S. subscribers to burnish its
status as one of the world’s most
popular entertainment outlets.
The financial results announced Wednesday topped analyst estimates, and Netflix basked
in Wall Street’s adulation. The
company’s stock surged $57.88, or
more than 17 per cent, to $391.61
in extended trading.
If the shares behave similarly in Thursday’s regular session,
the stock will hit its highest level since Netflix Inc. went public
nearly 12 years ago.
Investors tend to focus more
on Netflix’s subscriber growth because the widening audience provides the company with the means
to negotiate the rights to show
even more compelling content to
show in the future.
Netflix Inc. ended December
with 33.4 million U.S. subscribers
who stream video over high-speed

Internet connections, up from 31.1
million in September.
The company picked up another 1.74 million subscribers outside
the U.S. to end last year with 10.9
million international customers.
People are still flocking to the
service. Netflix expects to gain
an additional 2.25 million U.S.
subscribers during the first three
months of this year.
The strong showing follows
a year in which Netflix’s stock
nearly quadrupled in a resounding comeback from a steep downturn triggered during the summer
of 2011 after the Los Gatos, Calif.
company split apart its Internet
video service and DVD-by-mail
service.
The division resulted in price
increases of as much as 60 per
cent for customers who wanted to
keep both options.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings
apologized and the uproar eventually died down as the company
began stockpiling its $8-per-month
streaming service with more original programming, such as the Emmy-award winning House of Cards.
The second season of that se-

ries will be released Feb. 14, contributing to management’s optimism about its subscriber growth
for the current quarter ending in
March.
“It’s a great start for the year,
and that portends very well for
us,” Hastings said during an online video discussion of Netflix’s
fourth quarter and outlook. “We
are excited about what is happening.”
As more people connect their
TVs to the Internet and buy mobile devices, Netflix’s streaming
service is emerging as a must-have
pastime.
Meanwhile, the DVD-by-mail
service is gradually dying as more
subscribers abandon watching
video on physical discs.
The company ended December
with 6.9 million DVD subscribers, down from 13.9 million in
September 2011. In a reflection
of the DVD’s steadily declining
role, Netflix closed plans to make
a slight change in the appearance
of the red envelopes that deliver
the discs.

Please see NETFLIX on Page C6

Target hackers remain hidden behind black market
SHADOWY,
MULTI-LAYERED
BLACK MARKET
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — The hackers behind
the recent Target data breach are likely a world away and nearly impossible
to find.
That’s the consensus among outside
cybercrime experts as Target, the Secret Service and the FBI continue their
investigation of the pre-Christmas data
heist in which hackers stole about 40
million debit and credit card numbers
and also took personal information
— including email addresses, phone

S&P / TSX
13,988.20
+36.43

▲

TSX:V
980.44
+ 0.48

numbers, names and home addresses
— for another 70 million people.
In the aftermath of the breach, millions of Americans have been left to
wonder what has become of their precious personal information.
The information can be used in a variety of nefarious ways. Criminals can
attempt to use the credit card numbers
and place charges on the original owners’ accounts or they can use other
pieces of personal information to steal
people’s identities and apply for new
lines of credit.
In cases where such a massive
amount of information is stolen, criminals generally divide the data into
chunks and sell the parcels through
online black markets, says Chester
Wisniewski, senior security adviser for
the computer security firm Sophos.

▲

NASDAQ
4,243.00
+17.24

▲

In many ways, those markets behave
much like any legitimate marketplace
ruled by the forces of supply and demand.
Groups of higher-end cards are
worth significantly more than those
with lower credit limits and so are
cards tied to additional personal information, such as names, addresses and
zip codes, which make them easier to
use.
After thieves purchase the numbers,
they can encode the data onto new,
blank cards with an inexpensive, easyto-use gadget.
Or they can skip the card-writing
process and simply use the card numbers online.
Crooks often have the option to buy
cards last used in their area. That way,
Wisniewski says, the cards attract less

attention from the banks that issued
them.
That could explain why some debit
and credit card numbers of Target customers from South Texas turned up in
the arrest of a pair of Mexican citizens
at the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this
week.
According to police in McAllen,
Texas, the pair used account information stolen during the Target breach to
buy tens of thousands of dollars’ worth
of merchandise at national retailers in
the area.
But the U.S. Secret Service said
Tuesday its investigation into the possibility of a link between the Target
data theft and the arrests remains ongoing.

MARKETS CLOSE
TORONTO — The Bank
of Canada’s widely anticipated decision to keep its key interest rate unchanged helped
the Toronto stock market end
higher on Wednesday.
The S&P/TSX composite
index gained 36.43 points to
close at 13,988.20, while the
Canadian dollar fell 0.95 of a
cent to 90.19 cents US.
The central bank kept the
interest rate at one per cent,
while noting that inflation has
been lower than expected
and won’t return to its ideal
target of two per cent until
2016 even though the domestic economy has shown
signs of improvement.
In commodities, the February gold bullion contract
slipped $3.20 to US$1,238.60
an ounce, and pulled down
the TSX gold sector.
Weakness in the precious metal came after Morgan Stanley scaled back its
expectations for gold prices
over the next two years and
suggested equity markets
won’t need the safe haven of
the precious metal as much
as they did when economies
were more pained.
The report cut target
prices by 12 per cent to
US$1,160 an ounce in 2014
and by 13 per cent to $1,138
in 2015.
March copper fell 1.4
cents to US$3.34 a pound.
Financial stocks rose 0.3
per cent as Manulife Financial (TSX:MFC) gained 31
cents to $22.21.
The energy sector was
up 0.7 per cent as the March
crude oil contract moved up
$1.76 to close at US$96.73
a barrel, its highest level of
the year.
Information technology
stocks were the biggest gainer, rising 2.1 per cent, with
shares of BlackBerry ahead
9.9 per cent, or $1.08, to
$11.96.
BlackBerry (TSX:BB) announced Tuesday that it is
selling the majority of its commercial real estate holdings
in Canada, but the struggling
smartphone maker refused
to say how much it expects
to make from the deals.
The company has been

trying to change the course
of its money-losing operations under the leadership of
new CEO John Chen. BlackBerry shares are up about
50 per cent from the start of
the year.
On Wall Street, the Dow
Jones industrials dropped
41.10 points to 16,373.34,
the Nasdaq was 17.24 points
higher at 4,243 and the S&P
500 index moved up 1.06
points to 1,844.86.
Weighing on the market
were disappointing financial
results from IBM Corp. after
market close on Tuesday.
IBM reported that fourthquarter net income grew six
per cent, surpassing Wall
Street’s expectations even
though revenue declined.
Chief executive Ginni Rometty said she’s recommending that senior executives,
including herself, forgo personal bonuses for the year.
Shares of IBM were down
3.3 per cent to US$182.25.
In other corporate developments, Air Canada
(TSX:AC.A) said its domestic
pension plans had a small
surplus as of Jan. 1, according to preliminary estimates
— contrasting with a $3.7-billion solvency deficit a year
earlier. Shares of the airline
were up 8.5 per cent, or 76
cents, to $9.68.
TransCanada Corp.
(TSX:TRP) shares gained
37 cents to $48.84 as it officially started shipping crude
oil on the southern portion of
its controversial Keystone XL
pipeline.
MARKET HIGHLIGHTS
Highlights at close
Wednesday
Stocks:
S&P/TSX Composite Index — 13,988.20, up 36.43
points
TSX Venture Exchange
— 980.44, up 0.48 of a point
TSX 60 — 805.34, up
3.18 points
Dow — 16,373.34, down
41.10 points
S&P 500 — 1,844.86, up
1.06 points
Nasdaq — 4,243.00, up
17.24 points
Currencies at close:

Marois sympathetic
to Bombardier workers
Premier Pauline Marois expressed sympathy
for laid-off Bombardier
Aerospace workers on
Wednesday although she
says she remains optimistic about the company’s future.
Marois said she was
“very sad” for the 1,700
workers who were cut on
Tuesday, about 1,100 of
them from Quebec plants
in Montreal and Mirabel.
“I am confident about
things to come,” she said.
“Bombardier is a very
big company. It has had
difficulties in the past. It
has always respected its
commitments.”
Marois made the comments while attending
the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Bombardier said
Tuesday the permanent
layoffs are among efforts
to cut costs amid a tough
market and delays with
two new aircraft.
The latest cuts will
help offset billions of
dollars spent on plant
improvements and the
development of the
CSeries, Learjet 85,

Global 7000 and 8000, the
company said.
The announcement
followed several recent
setbacks for Bombardier, which is the world’s
third-largest aircraft
manufacturer after Boeing and Airbus.
Last week, it said its
new CSeries commercial jet won’t be ready
for service until the
second half of 2015,
several months past its
already-delayed previous goal.
The first flight and delivery of the Learjet 85
has also been delayed.
Bombardier Aerospace employs more than
35,000 people globally.
Marois noted that air-

craft manufacturers Airbus and Embraer have
also been hit.
Marois made the
comments amid an announcement that Spanish company FerroAtlantica will be setting up
shop in Quebec.
FerroAtlantica, which
bills itself as the world’s
largest producer of silicon metal, said it will invest $375 million in Quebec and create 300 jobs.
“Very favourable”
conditions atttracted the
company to Quebec, said
Pedro Larrea, the company’s director general.
These include discounted rates for hydroelectricity and a 10-year tax
holiday.

The envelopes will now be stamped
with the brand,“dvd.netflix.com,” instead of Netflix’s stand-alone brand
in an effort to make the company’s
name more synonymous with Internet
streaming.
Netflix earned $48 million, or 79
cents per share, during final three
months of last year. That compared to
$8 million, or 13 cents per share, at the
same time in 2012.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet had
predicted average earnings of 65 cents
per share for the just-completed quarter.
Revenue rose 24 per cent from the
previous year to nearly $1.17 billion,
just slightly above analyst forecasts.

KEYSTONE: Report
expected
within weeks
TransCanada said the line will ship
a mixture of Canadian heavy and light
oil, plus some U.S. volumes, but that
it’s impossible to predict what the percentage will be on any given day.
The Gulf Coast line was originally
pitched as part of the Keystone XL
project, but the Obama administration rejected it a few years ago citing
environmental concerns in Nebraska.
However, the U.S. government invited
TransCanada to reapply for a permit
with some route changes. The company decided to break the project up
into two parts, going ahead with the
southern leg first, as it does not cross
an international border and therefore
did not need the federal go-ahead to
proceed.
Girling said he expects a final
environmental report from the U.S.
State Department on the northern leg
of Keystone XL within “weeks.” That
pipeline would enable some 830,000
barrels a day of crude to flow from Alberta to Nebraska, linking up with the
existing system. Its current price tag is
$5.4 billion, but Girling says that’s going to go up in a “material” way due to
delays in getting a permit.
Jane Kleeb, with the anti-pipeline
advocacy group Bold Nebraska, said
that Wednesday marked a “very sad
day” for those worried about their
land in Texas and Oklahoma.
“We all know this pipeline is a huge
risk to folks along the route,” she said.
“Citizens are not stopping. Citizens
are watching this pipeline like a hawk.
They know that they are bracing for
the worst today as this pipeline starts
up.”
Pipeline opponents on a media conference call said they were alarmed to
see crews still working on the line just
days before start-up and were curious
as to why some pump stations didn’t
appear to be running.
“I do have some major concerns on
this start-up,” said Julia Trigg Crawford, a Texas landowner who has been
fighting TransCanada’s use of eminent
domain to access her property.
“It just doesn’t feel like it was a well

TARGET: Hackers
stay on the move
The underground markets where
hackers sell the bundles of stolen
numbers always have a steady supply
of card numbers on sale and their locations are always moving as they try
to elude law enforcement, says Daniel
Ingevaldson, chief technology officer
at Easy Solutions Inc., a firm that sells
anti-fraud products and tracks the activity of the online black markets.
A big jump in inventory usually indicates there’s been a breach of a major retailer. That’s what Ingevaldson’s
firm saw in the cases of both Target
and Neiman Marcus, which also recently reported a breach.
While many of these online bazaars
and forums are based in Russia and
Eastern Europe, much of the chatter is
in English and appears to have been
written by Americans, Ingevaldson
says.
The types of criminals who buy the
card numbers run the gamut, ranging
from purely online white-collar crooks
to street gangs.
“In reality, card numbers can be
bought by anybody with access to the
forums and a few Bitcoins in their
pocket,” Ingevaldson says.
Wisniewski says the people who buy
card numbers online and produce the
fake cards generally aren’t the ones
who try to use them. Using the cards is
the riskiest part of the fraud scheme,
so the task is usually farmed out to others who are often recruited through
spam emails. The recruiters then send
them fraudulent debit and credit cards
and instruct them to buy large quantities of expensive merchandise or gift
cards in exchange for a small percentage of their value.
Card users, once caught, often only
have a handler’s email address to
share with police, making it nearly
impossible to find the recruiters, Wisniewski says.
As for the original perpetrators
of the Target attack, experts believe
they’ll be difficult to locate. Eastern
Europe, Russia and former Soviet
republics are a hotbed of that kind
of activity, given the region’s large
population of well-educated computer
science professionals and the short
supply of legitimate employment prospects for them.

orchestrated start-up.”
TransCanada spokesman Shawn
Howard said the company was installing additional sensors along the
pipeline at valve sites — “redundant
monitoring equipment” that “further
enhances our monitoring and leak detection systems.”
Work on the additional sensors,
which are not needed to safely operate
the Gulf Coast project, should be completed shortly.
As for the pump stations, Pourbaix
said the line is gradually ramping up
to full capacity and some motors and
pumps may not be running just yet.
He said the pipeline is using highquality steel that’s strong enough to
withstand the impact of a 65-tonne
excavator with nine-centimetre teeth.
It’s also going to be buried deep underground, reducing the chances that
someone else can damage it.
“The Gulf Coast project is the safest, most advanced oil pipeline built to
date in America,” he said.

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If you have a Desire to be
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BESSEY
THORN
ECLECTUS Parrot
REG. Dental Hygienist
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Experienced
HAIR STYLISTS
met Doug Thorn whom she will be laid to rest with her
Production Testing
Please call Laurie
married in Victoria, B.C. in family in Linlithgow, Scotland
403-350-4341
Assistants
in
July
2014.
A
Memorial
1942. Rena and Doug moved
JUST CUTS is looking for
If
you
are a team player
to Red Deer in 1946 and Service will take place at
F/T - P/T HAIRSTYLIST
interested in the oil and
resided there until their Eventide Funeral Chapel,
No clientele necessary.
NOW HIRING
gas industry, please
passing. Rena had many 4820-45 Street, Red Deer on
Christie 403-309-2494
Well Testing Personnel
submit your resume,
Saturday,
January
25,
2014
LOOKING
for
WITNESS
to
interests
and
hobbies,
Experienced Supervisors
current driver’s abstract
including her love of a game at 2:00 p.m. Condolences an accident that occurred
& Operators
and current safety
Fri.
Dec.
20
between
Black
may
be
forwarded
to
the
of cards and her knitting and
certificates to the following: Must have valid applicable
Mini Cooper & Grand Am Janitorial
family
by
visiting
tickets
Fax 403-887-4750
croqueting. She enjoyed a
at Ross St. & 49th at 6:30
Email: lstouffer@
mbell@1strateenergy.ca
good game of bridge and www.eventidefuneralchapels.com
pm. Please contact
ARAMARK at (Dow
testalta.com
Arrangements entrusted to
during the winter months you
403-346-9126
Prentiss Plant) about
Please specify position
EVENTIDE FUNERAL
20-25 minutes out of Red
could often find her at the
when replying to this ad.
You can sell your guitar
CHAPEL
Deer needs hardworking,
River Bend Golf Course
for a song...
4820
45
Street,
Red
Deer.
reliable,
honest
person
We would like to thank all
playing a game or two with
or put it in CLASSIFIEDS
w/drivers license, to work
Phone (403) 347-2222
those candidates who
her many friends. She made
and we’ll sell it for you!
40/hrs. per week w/some
apply, however only
multiple afghans, giving them
weekends, daytime hrs.
qualified personnel will
to family and to charitable
$14/hr. Fax resume
be contacted.
Sylvan Lake. Openings for
w/ref’s to 403-885-7006
organizations as riffle items.
Bed truck drivers and winch
Attn: Val Black
Many scarves were generously
Looking for a place
wegot
tractor. Top wages and
donated for children through
to live?
TOO MUCH STUFF?
benefits. Email resume
Take a tour through the
Let Classifieds
the Christmas Bureau. She
tom@roncooilfield.ca
CLASSIFIEDS
or fax. 403-887-4892
help you sell it.
was also a long time active
member of the Order of the
CLASSIFICATIONS
Eastern
Star,
spending
countless hours helping the
Oilfield
700-920
organization raise funds for
their
charitable
projects.
Rena was predeceased by
Clerical
her husband (Doug), sister Births
Iva Belle (Mowers), brother
Receptionist/Shipper/
Cleo (Mowers), and-sister
Receiver Busy multi tasking
Holly-Belle (Hallett). She is
-requires neat,
survived by her son Robie
organized person.
Wise Intervention Services Inc. is now hiring for the
(Janet),
daughter
Janice
Apply in person to Grand
Rogers (Vern), two grand
following positions:
Central Stitchin’, #7, 7439
49 Ave. Cr. Red Deer.
children and two great grandARE YOU EXPECTING
• Coil Tubing Rig Managers
children. Rena and her family
A BABY SOON?
were eternally grateful for
• Coil Tubing Operators
Computer
Welcome Wagon
the support, attention, and
• Crane Truck Operators
Personnel
has a
kindness shown to her by her
• Nitrogen Pump Operators
special package
many friends and the Order
MICROAGE
• Fluid Pump Operators
just for you &
of the Eastern Star. Her days
your little one!
were also made brighter by
MicroAge is again looking
Competitive Wages and Benefits. Priority given to
For more information,
for dynamic individuals to
the entire Hallett family,
applicants with relevant experience, Class 1 Drivers
assist with offering our
Call Lori, 403-348-5556
especially her niece Faye
customers
a
positive
and
License and Valid Oilfield Tickets
Hallett, and her nephew
timely response to their
Grant Thorn all of whom
IT issues. We require and
Wise Is a leading oilfield services provider that is
were steadfast in their
administration assistant to
committed to Quality and Safety excellence. By
support and love for their Card Of Thanks
work with dispatching,
empowering positive attitudes, beliefs, perceptions
shipping/receiving/ and
aunt. A service will be held
some minor bookkeeping
and values, our employees care for the success of
for Rena at St. Leonard’s
MURRAY DAVIS
responsibilities.
We
need
Church in Red Deer on
one another.
someone
with
an
upbeat
The family of the late
Saturday, January 25 at 2
personality and willing to
Murray
Davis
would
like
to
p.m. with lunch to follow. In
assist with a variety of
For more information see
thank everyone for their
tasks. Must be able to
lieu of flowers, memorial
www.wiseisi.com
prayers
and
kind
words,
work
in
a
team
donations may be made to a
environment.
especially the people who
charity of your choice.
Please Forward All Resumes to
travelled from out of town
Please send your resume
to pay their respects.
jobs@wiseisi.com
or by fax to 403-340-1046
to hr@microage.cc
EDWARDS
Thank you for the beautiful
Mildred (Millie) nee Spelman
flowers and cards
Oct. 25, 1941 - Jan. 14, 2014
and the many good
Millie passed away at sunrise
memories of a special man.
Tuesday Jan. 14, 2014 at the
A very heartfelt thank you to
St. Joseph’s Hospice in
Father Wroblewski, and
Edmonton, AB. Born in
Sacred Heart Parish staff,
Edmonton in 1941, moved to
who helped make this painful
Red Deer in 1952 where she
journey a blessed and gentle
CLASSIFICATIONS
completed her education. In
occasion. It is much appreciated.
her life she lived in Red
1000-1430
Thank you to Valerie Oleson
Deer, France, Lethbridge,
and Danica Hoffart for the
Camrose
and
back
to
beautiful music,
Edmonton. She is survived
and the ladies of the CWL
by her husband Jim and two
who graciously served a
sons, David Van de Vliert
wonderful lunch.
and Gary Van de Vliert,
Our gratitude to Carley from
grandson Justin and great
Red Deer Funeral Home for her
granddaughter Paige. She
professionalism and kindness.
was predeceased by her
God bless you all.
Massage
Personal
granddaughter Alissha. A
Maureen Davis and Family
funeral service will be held in
Contractors
Therapy
Accounting
Services
Edmonton, Saturday January
25 at 1 pm. at Richfield
RMD RENOVATIONS
INDIVIDUAL & BUSINESS
REIKO’S Finest
Christian Assembly 3715-85 Funeral Directors
Accounting, 30 yrs. of exp. Bsmt’s, flooring, decks, etc.
Asian Massage
Call Roger 403-348-1060
with oilfield service
St. In lieu of flowers, & Services
MASSAGE
In call only. 587-377-1298
companies, other small
donations may be made to
International ladies
9 am - 10 pm. Mon. - Fri.
businesses and individuals
TOO MUCH SNOW to
the Canadian Pulmonary
RW Smith, 346-9351
shovel?
TL
Bobcat
Service
Fibrosis
Foundation
Seniors’
Specials. 11 a.m.-3 a.m.
Ltd. can remove it! $85./hr.
47-Squire
Bakers
Lane,
Private back entry. 403-341-4445 Services
Call Trent 403-358-1415
Markham Ont. L3P 3G8

60

760

770

jobs

800

720

NOW
HIRING

730

354296A30

www.heartlandfuneralservices.com

wegotads.ca

wegotjobs

50-70

RAY
It is with shock and deep
sorrow that we announce the
sudden passing of Linda Louise
Ray in Arizona, January 14,
2014 at the age of 62 years.
Linda was born in Red Deer
on March 27, 1951, the third
child of Leonard and Norma
Tomalty. On August 9, 1969,
Linda married Glen Ray and
together they farmed with
Glen’s parents, Dan and
Eileen Ray, 14 miles east of
Innisfail. They were blessed
with a daughter, Jennifer,
born June 3, 1971 and a son
Jason, July 16, 1972. In 1995,
together with farming, the family
began a small reclamation
business, which is now known
as Rayco Reclamation Inc.
After their farm sale in 2007, this
business became full time for
Glen, Linda and family. Five
years ago Glen and Linda
made the decision to spend
their winters in Arizona,
finding their niche in a
community in the San Tan
Valley area at the Johnson
Ranch golf course, one of
their favorite pastimes. So
many happy times with
friends and family were spent
there. Linda is survived by
her loving husband, Glen,
daughter Jennifer Klessens
(Mark), son Jason (Amber),
four bright lights of her life;
her grandchildren: Kaitlyn (Katie)
Klessens, Jeremy Klessens,
Stacey Ray and Joel Ray.
Linda is also survived by her
loving siblings, Julie Barber,
Nadine Kuiken (Gary), Rob
Tomalty (Wendy) and Sue
Henwood; Sister-in-law Viv
Connelly (Kevin); as well as
many
nieces,
nephews,
relatives and friends. She is
predeceased by her parents,
Len and Norma Tomalty, Glen’s
parents, Dan and Eileen Ray,
and a brother-in-law Bill Barber.
Words fail to express the
precious memories of a
profound loss in our family
circle. Funeral services will
be held at the Innisfail Alliance
Church on Saturday, January 25,
2014 at 1:00 pm with lunch to
follow at the Tournament House
at the Innisfail Golf Club.
Memorial donations may be
made to the Heart & Stroke
Foundation.
Arrangements entrusted to
HEARTLAND FUNERAL
SERVICES, LTD., INNISFAIL.
Phone: 403-227-0006.

D1

Red Deer Advocate

announcements
Obituaries

Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014

wegotservices

SOLBERG
Joseph Siguard
Joseph passed away January
20, 2014 at Bentley Care
Centre at the age of 99. He
was predeceased by his wife
Helen of 78 years in 2012.
Predeceased by his brothers,
Edwin,
Chester,
Arthur,
Harry. Sisters Mabel, Alice,
Selma, Gladys, Violet, Helen,
sister-in-law Stella, brotherin-law Edward. He will be
remembered by his sisters
Olga, Inga, Myrtle, brother-inlaw
Leonard
Skjonnberg
(Gale), Alfred Skjonnberg
(Florrie), sister-in-law Evelyn
Pederson, also numerous
nieces and nephews. Joseph
spent a very busy life, mail
hauler, gas service station,
trucker and taking over the
family farm and raising
Simmental
cattle.
After
leaving the farm, moved to
Red Deer for a short time.
Moved to Sylvan Lake Senior
Lodge for many years and
finally Bentley Care Centre.
We would like to thank
Sylvan Lake Lodge staff and
Bentley Care Centre staff for
their splendid care. Thank
you very much. At Joseph’s
request, no funeral will be
held. Cremation has taken
place and internment will
follow at a later date at Grace
Lutheran Church at Bentley.

To Advertise Your Business or Service Here

Call Classiﬁeds 403-309-3300
classiﬁeds@reddeeradvocate.com

1100

1010

1280

1315

FANTASY

Now Open

Eventide

Just had
a baby boy?
Tell Everyone
with a Classified
Announcement

Funeral Chapel
& Crematorium
4820-45 Street
Red Deer, AB

403-347-2222
eventidefuneralchapels.com

Contractors

1100

CARPENTERS and laborers with exp. in farm
buildings. 403-318-6406
DALE’S Home Reno’s
Free estimates for all your
reno needs. 403-506-4301

ATT’N: Are you looking for
help on small jobs around
the house or renovate
your bathroom,
painting or flooring, and
roof snow removal?
Call James 403-341-0617

Massage
Therapy

1280

MASSAGE ABOVE ALL
WALK-INS WELCOME
4709 Gaetz Ave. 346-1161

1372

HELP FOR SENIORS:
VII MASSAGE
in home or facility
#7,7464 Gaetz Ave.
family business est. 1999
bondable
staff, great rates,
Pampering at its
gift certificates avail.
BEST!
403-346-7777
403-986-6686
helpinghandshomesupport.com
Come in and see
why we are the talk Snow
of the town.
Removal
www.viimassage.biz

Daily the Advocate
publishes
advertisements from
companies, corporations and
associations from across
Canada seeking personnel for
long term placements.

CENTRAL ALBERTA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER

353002A23

HOLIDAY INN Red Deer South,
Gasoline Alley
Is Seeking

Valid Driver’s Licence
preferred. Fax or email
info@goodmenroofing.ca
or (403)341-6722
NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE!
Recently winning the 2013 Business of the Year award,
Bilton Welding and Manufacturing Ltd. designs, engineers and
manufactures custom energy equipment. Since 1992, Bilton
has worked with engineering ﬁrms and oil and natural gas
producers around the globe to develop their own equipment
standards for size, capacity and any number of technical
speciﬁcations. We operate seven manufacturing facilities in
Innisfail, Alberta and have recently expanded our facilities into
Calgary Alberta.

We employ over 175 people and provide ample opportunities
to employees to achieve their career goals. We provide handson training and an opportunity to work on some of the most
interesting projects and applications in the energy sector.
If you would like to be a part of our growing and dynamic team
of professionals in your ﬁeld, we are currently seeking both -

JOURNEYMAN H.D.
MECHANIC req’d immed.
for very busy heavy equip.
sales lot in Innisfail.
Wage range $25. - $35/hr
to start, depending on exp.
Preference will be given
to those with previous
equipment rental service,
lifts and off road
construction equipment
experience. Fax resume
to 403-227-5701 or email:
bouvier9@telus.net
LOCAL Construction
Company now hiring
EXPERIENCED
CLASS 1 DRIVERS.
Please fax resumes to
403-347-6296
REQUIRED:
CARPENTER/DRYWALLER
for restoration company.
This is a F/T position. Must
have a valid drivers license.
Duties: Carpentry, drywall,
painting & finishing work.
Fax or email resume to
403-347-4037 or crr@telus.net
or contact Al @ 403-347-4001
Looking for a new pet?
Check out Classifieds to
find the purrfect pet.

Bilton Welding and Manufacturing Ltd. designs, engineers and manufactures custom
energy equipment. Since 1992, Bilton has worked with engineering ﬁrms and oil and
natural gas producers around the globe to develop their own equipment standards
for size, capacity and any number of technical speciﬁcations. We operate seven
manufacturing facilities in Innisfail, Alberta and employ over 175 people.

Journeyman Millwright
OLYMEL, RED DEER PLANT
Key Responsibilities
• Ensure timely and accurate completion of tasks assigned.
• Communicate with other departments when necessary and
provides feedback when needed.
• Keep records of assignments and produce detailed work reports.
• Experience in a plant/manufacturing environment - an asset.
• Must be able to work in a fast paced, team environment.
• Must be available for shift work
• Must be willing to learn new technology.

We currently have career opportunities for a professional;

CORPORATE ADMINISTRATOR

We are seeking an independent Corporate Administrator to provide high-level
administrative support to Bilton’s executive team. The incumbent will be extremely
proactive with a professional, courteous and approachable demeanor in all interactions;
possess superior interpersonal relations skills will all levels of staff, customers and
vendors; and be able to use sound judgment and discretion. The Corporate Administrator
will have a thorough understanding of overall business organization, including
management and operating structures, and the importance of policies and procedures.
This position is based out of our Innisfail, Alberta ofﬁce.
Responsibilities;
You will ﬁnd success based on your ability to;
• Maintain Presidents schedule, daily to-do-list and travel plans
• Assist with President’s personal matters as directed
• Schedule Executive meetings, record and distribute agendas & minutes.
• Assist with planning and organizing corporate events
• Assist with corporate presentations, newsletters and other corporate communications
• Administer other corporate matters (org chart, keys, donations)
• Assist Executives in all areas, preparing documents and presentations as requested
• Greet clients and visitors and escort them to the appropriate meeting room
• Promptly receive and screen incoming telephone calls
• Assist with ofﬁce tasks as required

HOW TO APPLY:
Please submit your resume to Wale Adeyinka at apply@olymel.com

860

A Division of
CORDY ENVIRONMENTAL

Qualifications and Experience
• Journeyman or Red Seal Certification.
• Physically fit; ability to perform the tasks attached to the position.
• Available to work various shift schedules
according to production needs.
• Ability to read, write and communicate in English.

Job Requirements;
As the ideal candidate you will possess:
• Minimum 3 years previous experience in a related role
• Thorough knowledge of Microsoft Ofﬁce Suite
• Strong initiative and proactive approach to daily tasks
• Self-starter, capable of working independently with minimal supervision
• Problem solving and decision making skills
Career development, growth and unlimited possibilities – you’ll ﬁnd it here!
We offer comptitive wage & beneﬁts packages. Only applicants chosen for an interview will be contacted.

Truckers/
Drivers

BUSY Central Alberta
Grain Trucking Company
looking for Class 1 Drivers
and/or Lease Operators.
We offer lots of home time,
benefits and a bonus
program. Grain and super
B exp. an asset but not
necessary. If you have a
clean commercial drivers
abstract and would like to
start making good money.
fax or email resume and
comm.abstract to
403-337-3758 or dtl@telus.net

830

Sales Associate/Ofﬁce Position

CENTRAL AB based trucking company requires

Owner Operators
& Company Drivers

The successful candidate will have a positive
outlook, good organization and computer skills,
possess excellent phone and customer service, have
the ability to multi-task in a team based atmosphere,
jewellery knowledge an asset.

in AB. Home the odd
night. Weekends off. Late
model tractor pref.
403-586-4558

Food/Lounge Services
at the Penhold
Regional Mulitplex.
The Multiplex is comprised
of an indoor ice arena,
fitness center, running/
walking track, gymnasium,
dance & motion studio,
library, meeting rooms and
the Town Office.
A fully equipped concession/
food service kitchen.
OPPORTUNITIES:
2 Year Signed Lease for
A) Lounge Operation Only
B) The Café Operation Only
C) Joint Use of both Café
& Lounge
For Detailed information
regarding this opportunity
please visit our website @
www.townofpenhold.ca
Classifieds...costs so little
Saves you so much!

ANDERS AREA

Delivery is 4 times
per week, no collecting.

VANIER AREA

SPRING START

in
Johnstone Crossing

Women in the Trades
Program

Jepsen Cres. &
Jordan Pkway

Math and Science for
the Trades Program

(Reliable vehicle needed)
ROSEDALE AREA
Reichley St.,
Reinholt Ave.,
Robinson Cres. Area
100 Papers
$540/mo.
Call Jamie
403-314-4306
for more information
You can sell your guitar
for a song...
or put it in CLASSIFIEDS
and we’ll sell it for you!

PIKE WHEATON
CHEVROLET
is now accepting
applications for a full time
Parts Person.
Must have good communication and computer skills
and have the ability
to work independently.
Excellent company benefits.
Please email resume along
with wage expectations to:
philparts@gmail.com or
fax to 403-347-3813

• This is a career position.
• Salary based on experience and ability.
• Profit sharing and company benefits.
Apply by:
Email: bill@unclebensrv.com
Fax: (403) 346-1055
or drop off resume, Attn: Bill/Service

Fusion offers a competitive
salary, benefits plan and
an opportunity to utilize
your skills in a challenging
and rewarding environment.
If you are a proven Team
Player with experience and
initiative, please forward
your resume along your
salary expectation and
availability date to
Fax 403-347-7867.

VANIER AREA
Viscount Drive
Vickers Close
Volks Place / Vanier Drive
Vanson Close / Visser St.
Call Prodie @ 403- 314-4301
for more info
**********************
TO ORDER HOME DELIVERY OF THE
ADVOCATE CALL OUR CIRCULATION
DEPARTMENT 403-314-4300

Looking for a new pet?
Check out Classifieds to
find the purrfect pet.

FOOD SERVICE
PROPOSAL WANTED
Food services Contractor
required to provide
specified dining service to
residents of 60+
condominium located in
Red Deer. A commercial
kitchen located on site is
available for food
preparation. Additional
information will be
provided in response to
your letter of interest.
Please respond by fax to
403-346-9652 or email:
legacyestates@shaw.ca
prior to January 31, 2014.
Only persons with prior
commercial kitchen
cooking experience and
current food service
certificate will be considered.

D4 RED DEER ADVOCATE Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014

Israeli
says it foiled
al-Qaida plot
TO HIT U.S. EMBASSY,
OTHER TARGETS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM — Israel on Wednesday said
it had foiled an “advanced” al-Qaida plan
to carry out a suicide
bombing on the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and
bomb other targets, in
what analysts said was
the first time the global
terror network’s leadership has been directly
involved in plotting an
attack inside Israel.
The Shin Bet intelligence agency said it had
arrested three Palestinians who allegedly plotted bombings, shootings,
kidnappings and other
attacks.
It said the Palestinian
men, two from Jerusalem
and one from the West
Bank, were recruited by
an operative based in the
Gaza Strip who worked
for al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri.
The State Department
said the U.S. was not yet
able to corroborate the
Israeli claims.
While a number of
groups inspired by alQaida have carried out
attacks against Israel
before, this appeared
to mark the first time
an attack was directly
planned by al-Qaida
leaders.
The Shin Bet said the
Palestinians planned on
attacking a Jerusalem
conference centre with
firearms and then kill
rescue workers with a
truck bomb.
Al-Qaida
also
planned to send foreign
militants to attack the
U.S. Embassy in Tel
Aviv on the same day
using explosives supplied by the Palestinians, it said.
It said five men whose
identity and nationality
were not disclosed were
to fly into Israel with
fake Russian passports
to attack the American
embassy.
It was not clear where
the men are located.
The Palestinian operatives had planned on
several other attacks, it
said.
One included shooting
out the tires of a bus and
then gunning down pas-

sengers and ambulance
workers.
The agency said it the
plot was in “advanced
planning stages” but
gave no further information on how close the
men got to carrying it
out.
It said the Palestinians from Jerusalem had
used their Israeli resident cards to scope out
and gather intelligence
on targets.
They were arrested
in the past few weeks, it
said.
A number of al-Qaidainspired groups have carried out rocket attacks
from Gaza and Egypt’s
Sinai Peninsula, as well
as shootings in the West
Bank.
Israeli intelligence
calls these groups part
of a “global jihad” movement.
Aviv Oreg, a former
head of the Israeli military intelligence unit
that tracks al-Qaida, said
the plot marked the first
time it has been directly
linked to an attempted
attack in Israel.
“This is the first time
that Ayman al-Zawahri
was directly involved,”
he said.
“For them, it would
have been a great
achievement.”
The Shin Bet said the
three suspects made contact with al-Qaida over
the Internet.
It said they planned
on travelling to Syria
— where various jihadist groups are battling
the forces of President
Bashar Assad — for
training.
Oreg said that many
foreign fighters fighting the Assad regime
are from Chechnya and
predominantly Muslim
parts of Russia and
speculated that the
militants with the phoney documents would
be from there.
Al-Zawahri’s location
is unknown, but he was
last believed to be in
Pakistan.
He is the subject of
an intense manhunt
and is not believed to
personally go online or
pick up the phone to
discuss terror plots, experts say.

Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, centre, talks to his Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, right, and an
unidentified person, left, prior to the opening session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,
Wednesday. Leaders gathered in the Swiss ski resort of Davos have made it a top priority to push to reshape
the global economy and cut global warming by shifting to cleaner energy sources.

Political and business leaders
push for cleaner energy
TO LIMIT CLIMATE CHANGE
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DAVOS FORUM

DAVOS, Switzerland — Leaders gathered in the Swiss ski resort of Davos are pushing for nations worldwide to shift to cleaner
energy sources as the best way to
contain global warming and reenergize the global economy.
U.N. climate chief Christiana
Figueres, reflecting the top billing
that climate change has in Davos
this year, said the world economy
is at risk unless a binding deal is
agreed in Paris in 2015 to lower
heat-trapping carbon emissions
from coal and oil.
“It is important that we get the
treaty because the signal to the
markets, the signal to the global
economy, needs to be stronger
than it is right now,” she said in
an Associated Press interview on
Wednesday.
Nations emerged from climate talks in Poland in November with a vague road map on how
to prepare for a global climate
pact to stabilize warming at 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), a
level countries hope will avoid
the worst consequences of climate
change.
Figueres says she sees “momentum growing toward this” as
countries like China reduce coal
use to clear polluted skies and Indonesia plants more trees to protect water resources, seeing that
it’s in their national interest to

develop more sustainably.
Scientists say man-made climate change is likely to worsen starvation, poverty, lack of
water, flooding, heat waves,
droughts and diseases, raising
the spectre of more conflict and
war, unless drastic action is taken to lower emissions of carbon
dioxide from the burning of coal,
oil and gas from their current
trajectories.
The global economy may continue to grow, scientists say, but
if the global temperature reaches
about 3 degrees F warmer than
now, it could lead to worldwide
economic losses between 0.2 and
2.0 per cent of income.
A World Economic Forum report says the failure to mitigate
and adapt to climate change is
one of the top 10 risks facing the
world in 2014. The Davos forum
this year also emphasizes inequality by income, gender and access
to resources.
South Korea’s President Park
Geun-hye said climate change is
a problem that will take creativity
to overcome.
“Climate change and environmental challenges are global in
nature. As such the world must
act as one in tackling them,” she
said.
Disputes between countries
over who should bear the burden

Facing complaints about
snow response, NYC
mayor says more could
have been done
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Northeasterners
scraped and shovelled Wednesday
after a snowstorm grounded flights,
shuttered schools and buried roads
with a surprising amount of snow, leaving biting cold in its wake. The atmosphere was particularly frosty in New
York, where the new mayor acknowledged flaws in the cleanup and some
residents complained that schools remained open while children elsewhere
in the region stayed home.
The storm stretched from Kentucky
to New England but hit hardest along
the heavily populated Interstate 95
corridor between Philadelphia and
Boston. As much as 14 inches of snow
fell in Philadelphia, with New York
City seeing almost as much, and parts
of Massachusetts were socked with as
many as 18 inches. Temperatures were
in the single digits or the teens in many
places Wednesday.
In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio,
facing one of the first flashpoints of
his weeks-old tenure, initially defended what he called a “co-ordinated, intense, citywide response” to a storm
he said caused a worse-than-expected
headache when it ramped up at rush
hour. And de Blasio, who campaigned
on closing gaps between rich and poor
city residents, at first rebuffed complaints that the effort had lagged on
Manhattan’s posh Upper East Side,
saying “no one was treated differently.”
But he backtracked Wednesday evening, saying he’d determined “more
could have been done to serve the Upper East Side.”
Thirty more vehicles and nearly 40
more sanitation workers were sent to
the area to finish the cleanup, de Bla-

sio said in a statement that noted he
still felt the citywide response, overall,
“was well-executed.”
In a city where snow removal has
proven a political hot potato, the flap
was almost a mirror image of complaints about how de Blasio’s predecessor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg,
handled a 2010 blizzard.
Bloomberg, who lives on the Upper
East Side, faced criticism that outer
boroughs had gotten short shift from
plows. Brooklyn-dwelling de Blasio,
then the city’s public advocate, was
among the critics.
This time, de Blasio found himself
being asked why some Upper East Side
avenues still were covered in snow
when a Brooklyn thoroughfare was
plowed clear to the pavement.
Pamela Murphy Jennings’ two children navigated snowy sections of tony
Madison and Park avenues to get to
their public schools on the Upper East
Side, she said in an interview.
“Children have to walk to city bus
stops and cross these streets to get
here,” she said. “Cars are sliding on
roads. If there was any day to close
schools, this was the day.”
De Blasio said officials made the
right call in anticipating that streets
would be passable enough for students
to get to school safely, adding that his
own teenage son had gone, if grouchily.
Traffic and the storm’s timetable
complicated the cleanup, he and Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty
said. The storm arrived earlier than
expected Tuesday and intensified right
around the evening rush, making it difficult to plow and spread salt, Doherty
said.
Citywide, 100 per cent of primary
streets were plowed by 6 a.m. Wednesday, along with 90 per cent or more of
other streets, Doherty said.

Powered by

of cutting industrial emissions
have long been a barrier to action,
though many argue the benefits of
cleaner energy outweigh the costs
of conversion.
Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said he
couldn’t say whether his country
would sign on to a treaty at this
point.
Developing economies can’t
be asked to shoulder most of the
burden, he told reporters in Davos, and the enormous amount of
financial support that rich industrialized nations promised in aid
for adapting to a warmer world “is
simply not forthcoming.”
Al Gore was the headliner at
a private session on how leaders
can help prevent — and better
communicate — catastrophic effects on public health, anti-poverty efforts, clean water and energy
supplies from a rise in global temperatures above 4 degrees F.
“The climate conversation has
to be won by those who are willing
to speak up,” he told them. “It is a
race against time, but we are going to win.”
The World Wildlife Fund,
known as WWF, is among groups
calling on governments to commit
to action.
“There’s a rising recognition
that we simply have to find a way
to break through,” Jim Leape, director general of Geneva-based
WWF International, told AP. “The
big governments each need to renew their commitment.”

Central Alberta’s career
site of choice.

The Red Deer Advocate is
looking for a full time

PRODUCTION
ARTIST

Working in a high volume environment,
the successful candidate will be
responsible for designing and
processing ads, Classified page
layout, as well as the design and
layout of our special sections and
weekly papers.
They must possess a strong work
ethic, a keen eye for detail and be
able to work independently with
minimal supervision.
Mac-based Adobe Indesign and
Adobe Creative suite experience are
definite assets.
Hours of work are Monday to Friday,
37.5 hours a week.
Forward resumes stating “Production
Artist” by Friday, January 31 to:
swilliamson@reddeeradvocate.com
Drop off or mail to:
Scott Williamson,
Production Supervisor
Red Deer Advocate
2950 Bremner Avenue
Red Deer, AB T4R 1M9
We thank all applicants for their interest,
however, only selected candidates will be
contacted. No phone calls please.

LIFESTYLE

D5

THURSDAY, JAN. 23, 2014

No condolences
from husband’s
family

cause it’s marketed specifically to
women.
Most smartwatches and fitness
monitors at the moment are gender-neutral, though some smartwatches are still pretty large and
therefore fit more comfortably on
men’s wrists.
According to Netatmo’s website, the June “is meant to help
women know when and how to
protect their skin every day from
sun damage.”
And that’s fine.
But men need to protect themselves from sun damage, too, and
women may not require their sun
exposure sensor to look like designer jewelry.
Since the aesthetic direction of
wearables is still undetermined,
and is currently dictated by the
tech inside, the devices present
a good opportunity to move away
from traditional, often reductive, male and female marketing,
which can be particularly blatant
in tech.
Example: the EPad Femme tablet for women.
Alternate example: The Honda
Fit She’s.
It’s a tall order, but balancing
form and function is the crux of
the uncertainty in wearables right
now.

Dear Annie: I was married for 30 years to a man I
loved deeply. I know perfectly well he is not perfect
(who is?) and saw him struggle to control his temper
and sharp tongue.
He had a schizophrenic father and an alcoholic
mother. They divorced when he was about 10, and he
bounced from foster home to
foster home. He slept in alleys
and ate from garbage cans.
He was deeply loving,
fiercely protective and faithful. He had compassion for
the downtrodden and often
gave away food, clothing and
money to the less fortunate.
I loved his heart of “pure
mush,” as he put it.
Unfortunately, my family
only saw his quick temper and
said he was only using me for
MITCHELL
my money. He always worked,
just at lower-paying jobs, and
& SUGAR
we learned to live with less
so we could give more away.
They never saw the generous
things he did.
When he died, I notified both families and received no condolences whatsoever. His family has
never acknowledged his passing. My family members
seem intent on degrading him in front of our mutual
friends and me.
These are people who claim they care about me,
but I wonder. Why won’t they let the man rest in
peace and leave me with my loving memories, instead of trying to justify their apparent hostility?
He’s dead now and can’t aggravate them anymore.
How can I get them to stop? — Still Loving My One
and Only
Dear Still: You have to tell them and make it
stick. If your relatives begin denigrating your late
husband, respond with: “Please stop saying terrible
things about someone I loved. It makes my grieving
more difficult.”
Don’t lose your temper or cry. Simply make your
statement, and if they continue to say unkind things,
get up and leave.
Eventually, they will stop, but at least you won’t
have to listen to their comments in the meantime.
Our condolences on your loss.
Dear Annie: My daughter has never let me meet
my grandson. He was born in May, and the last time I
saw my daughter was in March when I hosted a baby
shower.
She and her boyfriend don’t believe in God. I
asked them whether they would bless the child, but
they became angry.
She is really breaking my heart. I can’t believe she
is so evil. What can I do to resolve this?
Dear Grandma: People who are deeply religious
often do not understand how offensive their religious demands are to people who do not share their
beliefs.
By asking your daughter to bless the child, you
were showing disrespect for her and her boyfriend.
We know you strongly disagree with their approach to raising their child, but it is not your decision to make.
If you ever hope to have a relationship with your
grandchild, you will need to demonstrate to your
daughter that you can be trusted not to undermine
her parental authority.
Dear Annie: Thank you for your poignant answer
to “In Love With Another Man,” the foolish married
woman who has reconnected with an old flame.
I, too, had an overly close relationship with a man
despite a perfectly good marriage.
Circumstances in my life made me emotionally
fragile, and “the other man” set off sparks that had
only vaguely smoldered in the marital day-to-day.
Long conversations with a counselor made me realize that “the other man” had all sorts of traits that
would be repugnant to me if it weren’t for the excitement and the romance of the fling, and I eventually
found my way back to the man I married. I pray “In
Love” follows your excellent advice and does the
same. — Never More in Love

Lily Hay Newman is a blogger
for Future Tense. Follow her at @
lilyhnewman.

The June bracelet by Netatmo on display at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The
jewel on the band connects with an iOS device and alerts the user when the skin has received too much sun
exposure.

Wearable bracelet that
measures sun exposure
combines form, function
The discussion surrounding
smartwatches this year is all about
aesthetics.
Who can make a smartwatch
that people actually want to wear?
And as these and other wearable sensing devices proliferate,
the tension between looks and
performance is intensifying.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the June bracelet,
which was announced at the
Consumer Electronic Show this
month on and is out later this
year.
The device tracks a user’s
sun exposure and syncs with
an app on iDevices via Bluetooth to monitor UV intensity,
recommend appropriate SPF,
give skincare advice based on
how much time a user spends
in the sun, and even give warnings when a user has caught too
many rays.
Created by Netatmo, the sensor company known for smart
home devices such as weather
monitors and thermostats, June
exemplifies tradeoffs in form and
function.
The device was designed by
Camille Toupet — a veteran of
Louis Vuitton and Harry Winston — and it has a photovoltaic
gem centerpiece which can be
either worn as a bracelet or tak-

en off the band and clipped onto
clothing.
It costs $100 and comes in platinum, gold, and gun metal.
It’s an unusually attractive,
even fashionable, wearable that
actually looks like statement jewelry instead of a piece of technology.
But it really only does one
thing: It measures sun exposure.
It’s a single-use device that
syncs to a single-use app.
Perhaps it foreshadows a world
where we each customize our array of wearable sensors by picking
and choosing among single-focus
gadgets from day to day.
Which sensors we want and
how we want to look would both
play a part in dictating how we
dressed and accessorized.
Wearables certainly would be a
lot more attractive if they weren’t
crammed with maximal functionality.
But this is also wildly inefficient, and previous technologies
haven’t evolved this way.
Cameras, MP3 players, calculators, notebooks, calendars,
phones, and everything else eventually collapsed into smartphones:
one device.
No matter how attractive a sensor-turned-bracelet is, there’s a
limit to how many wearables one
person can actually, you know,
wear.
The June is also interesting be-

HOROSCOPES
Thursday, Jan. 23

your desires with a great impetus and you are
strongly convinced that sky is the limit for you.
CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DATE:
CANCER (June 21-July 22): In your own
Mariska Hargitay, 50; Tiffani
cocoon, the dynamics of things
Thiessen, 40; Ewen Bremner, 42
should pick up quite fast as there
THOUGHT OF THE DAY:
seems to be a lot of change goThe Moon is in justice-seeking
ing on around. You may finally
Libra reminding us of the imporfind that one drop of inspiration
tance to maintain a balanced
to make some repairs around
attitude and behaviour towards
the house.
one another. Under the Libra’s
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): You
influence, it always takes two to
and a dear person in your life
tango. Luna makes a tight conmight not be in the same train
nection to Mars giving us faith in
of thought. He or she may want
our abilities. Later on, the Scordifferent things from you. As a
pio Moon takes over, while also
result, your confidence may sufspeaking to Neptune in Pisces.
fer. Keep your strong opinions
ASTRO
Notice a shift in today’s energies
well in check.
DOYNA
going from a social vibe into a
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
more introverted, darker, mystiTry to stay away from splurging
cal one.
yourself. Getting carried away by
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: If today
temptation may take you far from
is your birthday, it looks like you will be mov- your budgetary standards. Your restlessness
ing around quite a lot this coming year and and need to move around will want to get
not nearby where you live. The distances you busy catching up with your own folks.
will travel will be likely far, far away. Enjoy a
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): You are a gowide variety of cultural diversity and let your getter and despite the obstacles ahead, you
senses awake you to a new, fascinating real- won’t give up that fast. Your self-assertion will
ity.
allow you to speak up with more authority and
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Business bravery. As the days consumes, your mind
negotiations and rapport with others should will ponder over the welfare of your loved
prove more assertive and going forward for ones.
you. It goes without saying that tests are likely
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Leave beto appear on your path. Try to use a bit more hind all the negative thinking and all matters
diplomacy than usual.
that are weighting you down. You seem to
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Health mat- be caught up in a web of emotions that are
ters can be tackled on with vigour and plenty somewhat hard to comprehend. Don’t act
of motivation and drive. You have a specific upon your driven needs for now.
goal in your mind that you try very hard to
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In your
realize, at any cost. Don’t let petty irritations own team you are the leader as you are undisturb the course of your day.
afraid to take on any challenge or request
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You are not from your members. You feel energized and
indifferent when it comes to dealing with more even quite pumped up even when there is opsensitive matters in your life, such as your position. Try to make judicious compromises.
sweetie pie, whoever that is. You go after
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You want

SUN SIGNS

change and you feel quite driven to make it
fast and radical. You are feeling spontaneous
and adventurous when it comes to your next
professional challenge. Apply caution when
interacting with authority figures.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In your
overall makeup, there’s the drive to go absolutely passionately about whatever you have
not dared to do thus far. Your fears are dissolving and you are willing to listen purely and
entirely to your instincts today.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): When it
comes to your sexual appetite, it is insatiable!
Your desires are making you take the lead
and conquer your own fears of rejections or
whatever was holding you back. As the day
turns into dawn, things should be hot and
sizzling!
Astro Doyna is an internationally syndicated astrologer and columnist. Her column
appears daily in the Advocate.

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D6 RED DEER ADVOCATE Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014

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